Nearly half a million Afghans who were living in Pakistan without valid documents have returned home in just over two months as part of an ongoing crackdown on illegal migrants in the country, the caretaker interior minister said Friday.
At a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said more than 482,000 Afghans have returned home in the past more than two months, 90% going voluntarily. He said Pakistan has also decided to deport 10 Afghans who were in the country legally but who were taking part in political activities, the Associated Press reported.
“Only Pakistani citizens are allowed to engage in political activities in the country. Any foreigner who is found involved in any political activity will be deported immediately,” he said. Bugti did not identify the 10 Afghans who are being deported, nor did he give any details about their activities in Pakistan’s politics.
Bugti said in the ongoing first phase, only undocumented Afghans were being deported but at some point every Afghan refugee would have to go back because Pakistan had already hosted them for up to 40 years.
His comments coincide with US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West’s visit to Islamabad where he met with Pakistani officials including foreign minister and army chief.
West said on X on Saturday that they talked about “grave security challenges posed by TTP as well as imperative to protect Afghan refugees.”
