KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – On World Refugee Day, Amnesty International called on the government of Pakistan to immediately halt the deportation of Afghan refugees, highlighting the harassment, detention, and fear they face upon returning to their home country.
In a statement on Thursday, June 20, the international rights group said that the Pakistani government is planning to deport over 1.4 million undocumented Afghan refugees to Afghanistan.
“Pakistan must immediately stop deportation of Afghan refugees and take back its decision,” Amnesty International said.
In October of last year, the Pakistan caretaker government announced a plan called the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP), which required all undocumented immigrants, including over 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country or face deportation.
Recently, the country initiated the second phase of refugee expulsions, targeting the deportation of around 840,000 Afghan Citizen Card holders. These cards, issued in 2017 and 2018, had granted Afghan refugees legal status in Pakistan.
Since last October, according to Amnesty International, over 543,000 Afghan refugees, mostly women and children, have been deported to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Many of these refugees had initially fled the country due to Taliban retaliation and economic hardships.
Pakistani authorities claim that undocumented refugees are a major source of insecurity and illegal activities in their country. They justify the crackdown as a counter-terrorism measure, pointing to the recent surge in security incidents in the country.
Afghans are returning to their country at a time when economic, humanitarian, and healthcare conditions have deteriorated since the Taliban returned to power nearly three years ago.
According to the UN, over 23 million people in Afghanistan require lifesaving assistance, and more than 6 million children will face crisis-level or emergency-level hunger in 2024.
Earlier, Amnesty International said, “Pakistan’s ‘Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan’ is in violation of refugee and international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, and puts the lives of all Afghan refugees at risk, particularly women, girls, journalists, human rights defenders, women protestors, artists, and former Afghan government and security officials.”
“The Government’s decision also lacks transparency and arbitrarily cancels the validity of the ACC documentation that was issued by the Government of Pakistan itself,” the rights group added.
