Pakistani Police Intensifies Detention Of Afghan Migrants In Islamabad
Afghan refugees in Islamabad, Pakistan, alleged that the country's police have intensified the detention of refugees after a few days.
According to the migrants, police have arrested Afghan migrants since Tuesday in different areas of Islamabad, including Barakahu.
Sources from Islamabad's Barakahu area said on Thursday, January 30, that Pakistani police "intensified" searches of migrant homes at 9am and arrested a number of undocumented migrants, including women and children.
An Afghan refugee who was held in police custody for an hour told Afghanistan International that police had "beaten up" the arrested women. A female migrant who was trying to contact her family was seized by the police officials and severely beaten after a verbal altercation, she said.
Another refugee sent videos to Afghanistan International and said that the Islamabad police arrested a number of migrants, including his brother, from the Mandi Mor area of the city on Wednesday evening and transferred them to Haji Camp in Rawalpindi.
He said that the Pakistani police slapped him because of the filming. According to the woman, Pakistani police have also arrested migrants who had UNHCR cards with them.
Pakistani police have intensified arrests of Afghan refugees in the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi for the past month. These arrests had decreased in the past week and have intensified again in the last two days.
