According to UN estimates, there are around 1.3 million Afghans registered as refugees in Pakistan. An additional 880,000 people have been granted legal status to remain in Pakistan.
But according to Pakistan’s Acting Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, 1.7 million Afghans are in Pakistan illegally and these must leave the country voluntarily or be deported.
“The illegal migrants and illegal foreign nationals who are in Pakistan must leave by November 1,” Bugti told reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The move was made after Pakistan was subjected to several acts. The government of Pakistan blames militant groups with bases in Afghanistan for carrying out the attacks.
According to Pakistan, Afghan nationals are responsible for 14 of a total of 24 suicide attacks carried out in the country so far this year.
The Taliban regime in Kabul reacts sharply to the developments in Islamabad.
“Pakistan’s behavior towards Afghan refugees is unacceptable,” writes the Taliban regime’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on X, formerly Twitter.
The human rights organization Amnesty International appeals to the UN refugee agency UNHCR to speed up a process to review the asylum rights of the Afghans who fled to Pakistan.
About 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and imposed restrictive laws and regulations on residents.