Pakistan sets up deportation centers as Afghan migrant deadline nears

Pakistan is setting up deportation centers for migrants in the country illegally, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, officials said Thursday. It’s the latest development in a government crackdown to expel foreigners without registration or documents. Anyone found staying in the country illegally from next Wednesday will be arrested and sent to the deportation centers. Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the southwestern Baluchistan government, said three deportation centers are being set up. One will be in Quetta, the provincial capital. Azam Khan, the caretaker chief minister for the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the region will have three deportation centers. More than 60,000 Afghans have returned home since the crackdown was announced, he said. He said migrants who are living in the country illegally should leave before the Tuesday deadline to avoid arrest. Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti has said there will be no deadline extension. The country hosts millions of Afghans who fled their country during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation. The numbers swelled after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Pakistan says the 1.4 million Afghans who are registered refugees need not worry. It denies targeting Afghans and says the focus is on people who are in the country illegally, regardless of their nationality. There has been widespread condemnation of the crackdown. Last week, a group of former US diplomats and representatives of resettlement organisations urged Pakistan not to deport Afghans who are waiting for US visas under a program that relocates at-risk refugees fleeing Taliban rule. The UN issued a similar appeal, saying the crackdown could lead to human rights violations, including the separation of families.