Illegal refugees to leave Pakistan date won’t be extended: Amir Mir

US urges Pakistan to accept Afghan refugees,

Lahore_The deadline  for illegal refugees to leave Pakistan would not be extended, caretaker Punjab Information Minister Amir Mir said on Friday.

“A comprehensive policy has been made and no action will be taken against foreign nationals who have valid passports and visas,” he said at a press conference in Lahore held after a meeting on illegal foreign nationals concluded.

The government has set a November 1 deadline for all illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country. Anyone who fails to do so would be deported next month with the help of law enforcement agencies and government institutions.

Approximately 1.42 million – out of the total 4.4 million Afghan nationals – have proof of registration, interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on October 3. Pakistan hosts 0.85 million Afghan citizen card holders and 1.73 million illegal Afghan nationals.

At the same presser, he had said that 14 out of the 24 suicide bombings so far this year were conducted by Afghan nationals.

Punjab’s interim minister also reiterated the abovementioned statistics in his press conference, saying that it has been decided that those who were creating trouble would have to leave Pakistan and in this regard, a dashboard has been formed.

He added that action has already been started against such elements.

Punjab is hosting 164,000 Afghan refugees who have proof of registration cards, Mir said and clarified that the government’s purpose was not to target any specific group of citizens of any country.

“Illegal nationals without documents and those living in Pakistan after the end of their visa will be given exit permits for once so that they can cross the Pakistani border. But in case of not leaving Pakistan, action will be taken under Foreigners Act 1946 against them and they will be sent back to their country.”

The caretaker provincial information minister added that the UNSC resolution 1373 bounds all nations to not give protection to people involved in any kind of terrorist activities or those who are financing or becoming accomplices in terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, caretaker Interior Minister of Sindh Haris Nawaz told reporters in Karachi that foreigners residing illegally would be expelled from November 1. “Illegal residents are not allowed anywhere in the world.”

He added that illegal residents have been given a chance to return to their countries till October 31, after which action would be taken.

Earlier,

The United States has urged Pakistan to allow Afghans seeking protection to enter the country.

The US State Department said on Thursday that it strongly encourages Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian assistance.

“We strongly encourage Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations … to provide humanitarian assistance,” a US State Department spokesperson told reporters on Thursday as reported by Reuters.

Pakistan has set a November 1 deadline for all illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans, to leave the country or face forcible expulsion.

Pakistan says the deportation process would be orderly and conducted in phases and could begin with people with criminal records.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have said Pakistan’s move to evict illegal Afghan migrants was “unacceptable”.

Relations have deteriorated between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past couple of years, largely over accusations that militants fighting the Pakistani state operate from Afghan territory. The Taliban deny this claim.

A group of former top US officials and resettlement organizations have urged Pakistan to exempt from deportation to Afghanistan thousands of Afghan applicants for special US visas or refugee relocation to the United States.

Some 1.73 million Afghans in Pakistan have no legal documents.

Islamabad alleges that Afghan nationals carried out over a dozen suicide bombings this year.

Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979. Islamabad says the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan totalled 4.4 million.

Some 20,000 or more Afghans who fled the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan are in Pakistan awaiting the processing of their applications for US Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) or resettlement in the United States as refugees.