Pakistan To Establish Deportation Centres For Illegal Immigrants

In an interview with Afghanistan International, Attaullah Wesa, the brother of Matiullah Wesa, confirmed the news of the release of the activist.

On March 23, the Taliban intelligence arrested Wesa, the head of the Pen Path Organisation in Kabul. Wesa was arrested by the Taliban after traveling to Europe and meeting European officials.

After widespread international reactions, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson at the time claimed that Wesa was engaged in activism without informing the Taliban regime. Mujahid claimed that Wesa secretly and openly communicated with foreigners and received orders from them for his activities.

Mutiullah Wesa and Attaullah Wesa, two brothers from Kandahar, have been working for the opening of girls' schools in southern Afghanistan for more than ten years. After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, and the closure of girls' schools throughout Afghanistan, Wesa expanded his activities and tried to open girls' schools all over the country.

After the Taliban banned girls' education, he supported the campaign for girls to return to school.

The detention of Wesa provoked widespread international reactions and a large number of human rights defenders and international officials demanded his release.

Vahidi said that the security of these places must be ensured and the evacuation of foreign nationals from around places such as the shrine of Shah Cheragh in Shiraz is being implemented.

Iran's Interior Minister told the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), "According to the plan for the organising of foreigners, the security of some places should be ensured and foreigners should not be residing in those places."

The Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic did not name the foreigners, but it seems that he pointed to the Afghan immigrants in Iran. Recently, the Islamic Republic has planned to deport Afghan and other illegal immigrants from the country.

The decision to evacuate Afghans from around the Shah Cheragh Shrine was made after the second terrorist attack at this place in recent months.

Behrang Ghorbani, the Director General of Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs of Fars Governorate, said earlier that following the terrorist attack at the Shah Cheragh shrine, the owners of residential houses and the surrounding areas were told that they are not allowed to rent out their places to foreign nationals.

Earlier, the General Directorate of Foreign Nationals and Immigrant Affairs of Fars Governorate had announced that foreign citizens living in Shiraz Municipality and around the Shah Cheragh shrine have up to 14 days to evacuate their homes.

Following terror attacks on the Shah Cheragh shrine, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence had announced that the perpetrators of the two attacks were foreigners.

According to the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at least five million Afghan immigrants live in Iran.

The authorities of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly announced that people without valid residency documents should be deported. In the past months, tens of thousands of Afghan immigrants have been deported from Iran and handed over to the Taliban.

Bugti also said that the decision to deport illegal immigrants after November 1 was "misinterpreted" and Pakistan's target was not to only deport Afghan illegal immigrants.

The government of Pakistan recently announced that all illegal immigrants living in the country have until November 1 to leave Pakistan.

This decision faced a lot of criticism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several human rights organisations also expressed concern about the Pakistani government’s decision.

Addressing the Pakistani Senate on Wednesday, Bugti said that Pakistan's announcement about the deportation of illegal foreign immigrants has been "misunderstood”.

Bugti clarified, "We talked about deporting illegal residents, but this message was spread in such a way that we are deporting only Afghans. The government's message was not only for Afghans; it was for all illegal immigrants."

He said that the Pakistani government will also deport illegal Iranian immigrants who belong to the Baloch ethnic group.

Pakistan's interior minister added that anyone with a refugee card or visa is "our guest".

Haqqani made these statements during a meeting with the head of the European Union (EU) development aid in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s Minister of Refugees added that the aid from foreign organisations should be used to provide shelters to returnees, build clinics, and schools, and for other important projects.

In a statement, the Ministry of Refugees of the Taliban quoted the EU official as saying that the European Union has signed a memorandum of understanding for 15 million euros in aid for Afghan returnees.

So far, the official sources of the European Union have not announced any aid for the Afghan returnees. The Taliban has not provided more details regarding this matter.

The European Union official and the Taliban’s Minister of Refugees also discussed the Herat earthquake victims and how to provide humanitarian support to them.

Earlier, the European Union donated 3.5 million euros to the Herat earthquake victims.

According to the embassy, this year the embassy and four consulates of Pakistan in Afghanistan have issued visas to an average of 550 people per day.

It added that the country issued about 250,000 visas to Afghan applicants in 2022 and nearly 410,000 visas in 2021.

According to the announced statistics, the total number of visas issued to Afghan applicants in the last three years is about 776,000.

Official data indicates that close to 957,000 Afghan refugees reside in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province only, with fewer than 650,000 of them being officially registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The state government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that it has invalidated 597 fake ID cards. Also, based on these statistics, 3,911 Afghan refugees have been arrested for various crimes.

According to Pakistani government estimates, about 1.7 million unregistered Afghan migrants reside in Pakistan.

While the country has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for the past four decades, the Pakistani government last month set a one-month deadline for all immigrants without residency documents that they will be arrested and deported if they do not leave Pakistan.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that the Pakistani government has increased arrests of Afghan migrants to address the issue of migrants without legal documentation.