The United States urged Pakistan on Tuesday to fulfil its obligations toward asylum seekers let Afghan nationals seeking international protection enter its territory amid a deportation drive launched by the administration in Islamabad since the beginning of this month.
Last month, the Pakistani government warned all illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, to voluntarily leave the country or face forced expulsion after the November 1 deadline. Subsequently, tens of thousands of unregistered Afghans returned to their homeland amid criticism leveled by rights organizations who said many of them faced danger to their lives.
According to official estimates, nearly 1.73 million Afghans have been illegally residing in Pakistan and need to return to their country. These people are over and above 4.4 million registered Afghan refugees that have been sheltered by the country for several decades, though many of them also blamed the Pakistani authorities of harassing them despite being in possession of all the required documents.
Source : Arab News