The repatriation of illegal Afghan residents from Pakistan is still underway.
Even before the announcement by the government of Pakistan to arrest and forcefully repatriate the Afghans living in Pakistan, a large number of illegal residents crossed the border into Afghanistan out of fear of arrest.
In this connection, 1,199 allegedly illegal Afghan citizens left Pakistan on December 31, out of which 389 were men, 323 women and 487 children.
Also Read: Repatriation of the illegal Afghans continues
As of Sunday, the total number of allegedly illegal Afghans who left Pakistan reached 455,645; the process is still underway.
During the repatriation operation, 92 families in 73 vehicles have travelled to Afghanistan.
Not just Pakistan
Meanwhile, it’s not just Pakistan; there are other countries in the region too that are fed up with illegal Afghan residents and are forced to send them back.
Pakistan has been hosting Afghan nationals for a long time, but in recent years, due to the increasing criminal activities of Afghan nationals residing illegally in Pakistan, the country has been forced to repatriate them.
On a daily basis, Pakistan is continuing the process of repatriating illegal Afghan citizens. However, Pakistan is not the only country in the region that has decided to send back illegally residing Afghans.
According to a Voice of America report, Iran is also sending back illegally residing Afghans. In the last three months of 2023, Iran and Pakistan have altogether sent around 850,000 undocumented Afghan citizens back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, as per the report.
The Taliban regime’s Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Abdul Rahman Rashid, told the local Tolo News channel on Monday that Iran had deported "about 345,000" illegal Afghans since the last week of September, reported Voice of America.
Iran has banned millions of Afghan refugees and migrants from living, travelling or seeking employment in more than half of the country's 31 provinces, as per a Radio Free Europe report. It added that in October, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi reiterated that Tehran would deport all "illegal" immigrants, most of whom are Afghan nationals.
According to Amu TV, Iran is repatriating 1,500 to 2,000 illegal Afghans on a daily basis. Tehran estimates that more than five million Afghans are currently living in the country. Iranian authorities now want to deport at least half of them because they do not possess documents to stay in the country, as per a Radio Free Europe report.
The Pakistan government has made it clear repeatedly that its crackdown is not targeting 2.3 million Afghan citizens who possess legal documents. Illegal Afghan citizens in Pakistan allegedly carried out more than a dozen suicide bombings last year, which is a clear proof of the legitimacy of the government’s policy.
Like any other country in the world, Pakistan has the right to take necessary measures for the security of its country and its people according to United Nations laws. The decision to repatriate illegal Afghans is a link in that chain.
