Amnesty International Calls for Financial Support to Pakistan for Hosting Afghan Refugees

In the statement, the group stressed that the countries should consider "good neighbourliness, Islamic brotherhood, and humanity" while dealing with Afghan immigrants.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesperson, published this statement on the X social media platform, and asked the neighbouring countries not to "deport Afghans by force and without preparation”. The group asked Pakistan and Iran to give Afghan immigrants time and be patient with them.

This week, the Taliban announced its plan to receive and settle Afghan refugees, but it has not announced further details such as financial resources. It is not clear as to what extent the Taliban has the facilities to settle at least 1.7 million immigrants whom Pakistan will deport after November 1.

Iran has also announced that it has started identifying and deporting illegal Afghan immigrants, however, unlike Pakistan, it has not yet announced a plan and deadline for their deportation. The country said that it has deported more than 800,000 Afghan immigrants since the beginning of this year.

The United Nations and international organisations have asked Pakistan to stop the forced deportation of Afghan immigrants. In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan said that Pakistan deports illegal immigrants according to domestic and international laws.

"We are not deporting any refugees. Only those who are completely illegal will leave Pakistan," said Bugti on Tuesday without providing further details.

In a statement released on Tuesday, he added that the deportation process would be "lengthy and gradual”.

Earlier this month, Islamabad announced the decision to deport illegal immigrants and claimed that Afghan citizens are involved in violence, smuggling, and crimes in Pakistan. The Taliban in Kabul rejected these accusations and human rights defender groups asked Islamabad to reconsider its decision.

The Ministry of Interior of Pakistan said that more than four million Afghan immigrants live in the country, and about 1.7 million of them do not have legal documentation.

Bugti said that those who leave voluntarily will receive help in temporary centres.

He added that they will try to provide these migrants with food and health facilities for two to three days.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that, following the deadline for deporting undocumented immigrants from Pakistan, a significant number of Afghans arrived at the border crossings in trucks and buses.

Pakistani officials said that around 200,000 Afghans have returned to their country since the crackdown on migrants in Pakistan increased.

Refugee organisations have said that since the deadline was set earlier this month, around 4,000 people have crossed the border every day.

According to the ministry, 3,572 of these immigrants were forcibly deported from Pakistan.

Pakistan had said that by November 1, all Afghan refugees without valid residency documents should return to Afghanistan.

In the past weeks, hundreds of Afghan migrants were arrested and forcibly deported to Afghanistan.

Most of these people are immigrants who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover of power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

At the same time, Human Rights Watch stressed that the government of Pakistan should end the police abuse of Afghan refugees and stop forced deportations.

This organisation asked Pakistan to cooperate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resume the registration of Afghan refugees.

Human Rights Watch also asked the United States, UK, Germany, and Canada to speed up the resettlement of Afghans at risk, including human rights activists, journalists, the LGBTQ community, women, and girls.

Pakistan's interior minister has also warned that action will be taken against those who shelter illegal immigrants, including Afghan nationals.

According to the video clips obtained by Afghanistan International, using the mosques, the Pakistani police have urged the country’s citizens to cooperate in identifying illegal immigrants.

In one of these video clips, it has been seen that the police are destroying a migrant camp in an area of the country’s capital city, Islamabad. It is said that immigrants who do not have a residence permit live in this camp.

Recently, the interim government of Pakistan gave a one-month to the immigrants who do not have legal residency documents to leave the country. Pakistani officials have said that there are about 1.7 million undocumented migrants who must leave the country. The Pakistani government’s deadline ends on Wednesday and most of these illegal migrants are citizens of Afghanistan.

Despite human rights organisations calling on the Pakistan government to reverse the decision to deport Afghan refugees, the country's authorities have not changed the decision to deport them.

Raffaella Iodice, the Head of the EU Delegation in Afghanistan, emphasised the economic importance of empowering Afghan women. In a recent post on the social media platform X, she announced that the European Union will provide £15 million to the UNDP in Afghanistan to bolster Afghan businesses led by women and young entrepreneurs in six provinces.

This humanitarian aid aims to sustain job opportunities for women in Afghanistan, given the extensive restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women's rights to work and education. Since taking control in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has enforced stringent limitations on Afghan women and girls.

Over two years later, the Taliban's policies concerning women's employment in governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as various other professions, remain unaltered.