Amnesty Worldwide is urging Pakistan to take care of its help for Afghan refugees by enabling them to dwell with dignity and be free from the worry of deportation to Afghanistan the place they face persecution by the Taliban
FILE – An Afghan refugee household return to Afghanistan by means of Pakistan’s border crossing, Torkham, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. Pakistan’s caretaker Inside Minister on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, requested all unlawful immigrants, together with Afghans, to return to their international locations voluntarily earlier than October 30 to keep away from mass arrest and compelled deportation, sending a wave of panic, particularly amongst 1.7 million Afghan refugees dwelling within the Islamic nation with out legitimate paperwork. (AP Photograph/Rahmat Gul, File)
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ISLAMABAD — Amnesty Worldwide on Thursday urged Pakistan to take care of its help for Afghan refugees by enabling them to dwell with dignity and be free from the worry of deportation to Afghanistan the place they face persecution by the Taliban.
A compelled return of refugees to Afghanistan might put them at a “grave danger,” Amnesty mentioned in a press release, although Pakistan says its ongoing operations in opposition to irregular immigration weren’t particular to Afghans.
“Afghans in Pakistan are fleeing persecution by the Taliban,” mentioned Nadia Rahman, Amnesty’s regional deputy director for analysis in South Asia. “They’re dwelling extremely precarious lives the place they’re both having to endure arduous processes for registering as refugees in Pakistan, or are caught in prolonged processes ready to acquire relocation to a different nation.”
The enchantment by Amnesty got here two days after Pakistan introduced a significant crackdown on migrants who’re within the nation illegally — a lot of whom are from Afghanistan — and mentioned it might expel them beginning subsequent month.
The Taliban authorities’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has additionally opposed Pakistan’s announcement in regards to the migrants, saying it was “unacceptable” and that Islamabad ought to rethink the choice.
Pakistan has been internet hosting Afghan refugees since they fled Afghanistan through the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation.
