Pakistan has conveyed to the United States that it would deport all Afghans awaiting resettlement in America if the deadline for their relocation was not fulfilled or that their cases were rejected.

The message was conveyed through the diplomatic channels after President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the Afghan refugee program for 90 days.

Thousands of Afghans who worked for the United States and other Western countries during their campaign against the Afghan Taliban fled to Pakistan and sought a temporary stay.

Pakistan accepted the United States and its allied request to give them residence in the country for a short period of time before flying out of Islamabad for their respective destinations.

The United States and its allies promised special immigration visa to all such Afghans who worked for them.

However, the process of their relocation was carefully slow during the bit of administration.

The previous US government had agreed to move all Afghans who were eligible for a special immigration visa by September 2025.

But with President Trump suspending the program, it seems impossible to meet the deadline.

Pakistan is concerned that such Afghans may never be moved to the United States considering the harsh anti-immigration policy pursued by the current administration.

That was why it decided to convey in unique terms to the Trump administration that it would not allow these Afghans to stay in Pakistan beyond September 2025.

None of the pages have shared the exact number of stranded Afghans in Pakistan, but some estimates suggest that it is between 15,000 and 25,000.

During a recent conversation with TRT World, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had confirmed that Pakistan would remove all Afghans if they were not moved to the United States on time.

“If any refugee who was implemented to be taken by another country after a proper process – regardless of timeline – if it doesn’t happen and the country refuses to us, it will be an illegal immigrant in Pakistan and we may be forced to send such a refugee back to their original country, which is Afghanistan,” Dar said.

However, the Foreign Minister left the door open to conversations with Washington to resolve the situation.

Pakistan has generally decided to tighten the policy against the Afghan refugees. It is considering securing the return of all Afghans living in the country.

The campaign was first launched in October 2023 against the undocumented Afghans, but the government now wants to expand this to all Afghans regardless of their legal status.

The reason behind Pakistan’s push for deferring Afghans stems from its strained bands with the Taliban regime.