Pakistan’s government announced a major crackdown Tuesday on migrants in the country illegally, saying it would expel them starting next month and raising alarm among foreigners without documentation who include an estimated 1.7 million Afghans.
The country’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said the crackdown was not aimed at Afghans and would apply to all nationalities, though the vast majority of migrants in the country are Afghans.
The campaign comes amid strained relations between Pakistan and neighboring, Taliban-led Afghanistan over what the Pakistani government says are attacks in Pakistan by Taliban-allied militants who go back and forth across the countries’ shared 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border and who find shelter in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s government announced a major crackdown Tuesday on migrants in the country illegally, saying it would expel them starting next month and raising alarm among foreigners without documentation who include an estimated 1.7 million Afghans.
The country’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said the crackdown was not aimed at Afghans and would apply to all nationalities, though the vast majority of migrants in the country are Afghans.
The campaign comes amid strained relations between Pakistan and neighboring, Taliban-led Afghanistan over what the Pakistani government says are attacks in Pakistan by Taliban-allied militants who go back and forth across the countries’ shared 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border and who find shelter in Afghanistan.
“Anyone living in the country illegally must go back,” he said.
It was unusual for such a major shift in immigration policy to come during a caretaker government, which is intended to tide the country over during interim periods between the end of a five-year National Assembly and elections. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar took power in August and is supposed to rule until elections planned for the end of January.
A government statement said the new migration policy was endorsed during a high-level meeting Tuesday among Pakistan’s political leadership and the country’s powerful military.
“Anyone living in the country illegally must go back,” he said.
It was unusual for such a major shift in immigration policy to come during a caretaker government, which is intended to tide the country over during interim periods between the end of a five-year National Assembly and elections. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar took power in August and is supposed to rule until elections planned for the end of January.
A government statement said the new migration policy was endorsed during a high-level meeting Tuesday among Pakistan’s political leadership and the country’s powerful military.
After seizing power in 2021, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers announced a pardon for Afghans who had fled and urged them to come back, but most of them are staying in Pakistan or elsewhere in hopes of emigrating to other countries including the United States.
Zahid Hussain, an independent Islamabad-based journalist-turned-analyst, said that although the government has stressed that the crackdown isn’t aimed at Afghans, he believes the policy has been prompted by the involvement of Afghans in recent terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
Hussain was skeptical that any campaign to expel undocumented migrants could be successful any time soon.
“It will not be an easy task to accomplish as how can you detain or expel 1.7 million unregistered Afghan people? It is going to further strain ties between the two sides,” he said. “Let us see how the government implements the policy about the expulsion of illegal immigrants.”
The outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, routinely claim attacks on Pakistani security forces. But they have distanced themselves from a pair of suicide bombings last week that took place hours apart and killed 59 people in southwest and northwest areas bordering Afghanistan. Nobody has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
Afghan officials say that Pakistan’s government is targeting Afghan refugees regardless of whether they have documentation to be in the country.
The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Pakistani counter-terror police have arrested about 1,000 Afghan refugees in the last two weeks, and that about half of them had travel or immigration documents. It urged Pakistan to stop such operations because of their negative impact on the relationship between the two countries.
Pakistani officials have given no details of such arrests in recent weeks, nor of the charges the suspects would have faced.
Raees Khan, 47, another Afghan refugee who said he didn’t feel the need to register with Pakistani authorities, said he has lived in Peshawar since 2007 and has been working in the transportation industry. He said it would take him much longer than a month to wind down his business and move with his wife and five children.
“I have no idea what is going to happen with us after today’s warning by Pakistan. We face forced expulsion,” Khan said. “This deadline should be extended at least for six months so that we can easily return to our country,” he said.
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Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
