Pakistan’s government on Friday said “We decide who remains” after the United Nations refugee chief called on the country to put its mass expulsion of Afghans after a major earthquake.
Thousands of Afghans registered as refugees have risen across the border from Pakistan in recent days, with returns escalating despite an earthquake over the weekend that killed 2,200 people and flattened entire villages in Afghanistan.
It received a call from Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: “Given the circumstances, I appeal to (the government of Pakistan) to put the implementation of the illegal foreigners’ repatriation plan.”
Read more: UN refugees urge Pakistan to put Afghan deportation after earthquake after earthquake
Pakistan has hosted Afghans fleeing violence and humanitarian crises for more than four decades, from the Soviet invasion of the Taliban acquisition in 2021.
“All people without documentation have to leave. That’s what Pakistan does and what every other country will do, including in Europe and other countries … It’s our territory we decide who remains in,” Shafqat Ali Khan told the Foreign Ministry for a press briefing.
The World Health Organization estimated that 270,000 returned recently settled in the earthquake affected districts bordering Pakistan.
Afghans awaiting relocation to Germany have reported several police attacks on boarding houses, where the German authorities have asked them to stay for months at the end while their cases are being dealt with.
Many of those living in the villages of earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan were among the more than four million Afghans forced back to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
Different cohorts of Afghans have found different degrees of stability, including access to work and education, in Pakistan.
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Some were born and raised there, while others transferred on their way to resettlement in the West.
However, Pakistan’s government launched a Uptick in violent attacks and rebel campaigns, a crash in 2023 to remove them and paint the population as “terrorists and criminals.”
More than 1.2 million Afghans have since been forced to return from Pakistan, including more than 443,000 this year alone, according to the United Nations.
The crash has last targeted at an affluent 1.3 million refugees with proof of registration card (POR) cards issued by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
Islamabad has set a deadline for September 1 for them to leave or face arrest and deportation.
