Pak's Punjab govt deports over 6,000 illegal Afghan residents in Nov

Lahore, Nov 20 (PTI) Pakistan's Punjab province government has intensified its crackdown on illegal Afghan residents, deporting over 6,000 people to Afghanistan this month alone, a minister said on Thursday.

The Punjab government has also paid a "cash reward" to those Pakistanis who provided information about Afghans living illegally in the province of 130 million.

"Operation against illegally residing Afghans in Punjab is in full swing. The province-wide crackdown is being carried out in an organised, legal, and effective manner," Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said in a statement.

She said the Punjab government has encouraged citizens to share information under the whistleblower mechanism, leading to multiple individuals providing accurate and actionable intelligence.

"Those who identify illegally residing Afghans are given cash rewards, and the identity of every whistleblower will remain strictly confidential," she said.

The minister said that 6,220 illegal Afghan nationals have been deported to Afghanistan from Punjab in November, and the operation will continue effectively.

"Repatriation process of illegal Afghan residents from Punjab is progressing successfully, and the government is strictly adhering to its zero-tolerance policy in this regard," she added.

Last month, the Punjab government deported around 22,000 Afghan nationals residing in the province illegally.

The third phase of the operation to repatriate illegally residing foreign (Afghan) nationals from Punjab has been launched.

The Punjab government last month de-notified the last Afghan Refugee Camp in Mianwali's “Kot Chandna”, 325kms from Lahore. However, four such camps are still functioning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 in Balochistan.

Before the launch of the third phase, the Punjab government had repatriated some 43,000 Afghan nationals from April to September, as part of Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigner Repatriation Plan (IFRP).

Security has been placed on high alert to ensure the complete removal of all illegal residents.

The Punjab government still has 46 functional holding centres in the province, including five in Lahore, and holds illegally staying Afghan nationals until they are transported to the Torkham Border for crossing over to Afghanistan.

The UN’s refugee agency reported that more than 3.5 million Afghans had been living in Pakistan, including around 7,00,000 people who came after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The UN estimated that half of them were undocumented.

The Shehbaz Sharif government says the high number of refugees is posing risks to national security and causing pressure on public services, therefore, they have to be deported. PTI MZ ZH ZH