Taliban’s acting minister of Refugees and Repatriation Affairs has urged Pakistan to resolve the Afghan migrants’ issue within the framework of bilateral understanding, Khaama Press reported on Friday. Pakistan reportedly plans to begin the second phase of its expulsion of Afghan migrants from April 10 after having driven 5,35,000 of them out of the nation since November last year.
According to the newsletter of the Afghan-Taliban Ministry of Migrants, Abdul Rahman Rashid, a deputy of this ministry, raised this request on Thursday in a meeting with Junaid Waziri, the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul. Diplomats from Pakistan have been informed by Rashid that decisions pertaining to immigration are bilateral in nature and should be decided in accordance with the two nations’ mutual agreement.
At a recent iftar event held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, which was attended by ambassadors and representatives of various nations, Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban, declared that over a million Afghan migrants had been forcibly and voluntarily removed from neighbouring countries.
Recently, Amnesty International has called for an ‘immediate cancellation’ of a plan to expel the Afghan migrants from Pakistan and stated that it violates international human rights laws. The plan of expulsion of Afghan refugees, according to a statement made by one of the organization’s activists for refugees and migrants, breaches international human rights laws, international refugee laws, and all international conventions.
“The Pakistan authorities’ callous disregard for the persecution, serious human rights violations and humanitarian catastrophe that await Afghan refugees if deported to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is heart-breaking. Instead of heeding repeated global calls to halt deportations, the newly elected Pakistani government has disappointingly now extended the deportation drive to Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders as well,” said James Jennion, according to TOLOnews.
Afghan migrants in Pakistan are concerned about their unclear future as the second wave of expulsion of Afghan migrants is about to begin in the country.
They object to the Pakistani police detaining and abusing Afghan migrants. The first phase of expelling undocumented Afghan migrants from Pakistan began in November 2023, whereas the second phase, under the name of the ‘repatriation plan’ which also includes those holding citizenship cards, is set to start on April 10.
Human rights organisations and Afghanistan both criticised the action, but the government stood its own and insisted that it was not directed at any one ethnic community. (ANI)
