No country for old Afghans: ‘Post-1951 immigrants to be considered illegal’

Will be deported to Afghanistan after their CNICs are blocked

PESHAWAR:

All those Afghan nationals who immigrated to Pakistan before civil unrest erupted in 1979 in their country would be treated as illegal residents and deported, said an official of the Special Branch Police.

He told The Express Tribune relevant officials had been issued directives to not consider any |proof of immigration” from the 60s or 70s as valid and report such documentation so CNICs of these individuals be blocked.



“We do not know who took the decision, but the new policy is that any Afghan family which migrated after 1951 will be considered illegal immigrants and their CNICs will be blocked after separate verification from the Special Branch and Intelligence Bureau (IB),” he said. “The decision was probably taken after reports emerged that several refugees who managed to get CNICs had purchased land using backdated documents,” he said.

“The instructions are clear cut. Any document from 1951 onward will not be accepted and all those who migrated subsequently will be considered illegal immigrants,” he reitereated.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an IB official, requesting anonymity, said a notification from October last year clearly mentioned that as per the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951 (and Pakistan Citizenship Act Rules 1952), all those people who migrated to Pakistan before April 18, 1951 are automatically Pakistani nationals. The Act added that those who moved after this date would have to apply for nationality as per the procedures set by the government.

“After the introduction of this act, no person could automatically become a Pakistani national by purchasing land or obtaining a CNIC,” the intelligence official stated. “Now all Afghan refugees are being verified.”

The notification was issued by the Federal Ministry of Interior after queries from NADRA sought clear-cut instructions from the government.

A number of the Afghan refugees have married local women, purchased land and run large businesses in the country. However, after these directions, a large-scale crackdown was initiated and even government officials are being verified.

“Two constables with eight years of service have been fired from the police because they are Afghan nationals and others are being verified,” he said. The official added a number of other government employees were actually “illegal immigrants”.

In the wake of the devastating Army Public School massacre which resulted in the death of over 150 people, mostly children, the government intensified its crackdown against Afghan refugees illegally residing in Pakistan. “We consider unregistered Afghan refugees a security threat, that is why law-enforcement agencies have been directed to push them back home,” a senior official of the Ministry of Interior said last month.

Even diplomats are not immune to the government’s crackdown. Towards the end of February 2015, four of them were detained with 28 other Afghans and locked up in the University Town police station. Several citizens of the neighbouring country are being kept in different jails owing to the lack of proper transportation facilities to deport them to Afghanistan via the Torkham border in Khyber Agency.

There are around 1.6 million Afghan refugees registered with authorities, while around 1 million were residing in Pakistan illegally. Of the latter, it is estimated that up to 200,000 have managed to obtain CNICs without even having registered.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2015.