MUNIR AHMED
Authorities have stepped up arrests of Afghan citizens in Pakistan’s capital and a nearby city in an effort that the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad described on Wednesday as a push to force the expulsion of all Afghan refugees from the country.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry promptly dismissed the allegation, saying that the authorities were only trying to facilitate conditions for the swift return of Afghans to their home country.
Pakistan has long threatened to deport Afghans living in the country illegally.
Separately, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month approved a March 31 deadline to deport those awaiting relocation to third countries unless their cases are swiftly processed by the governments that have agreed to take them, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
More than 800,000 Afghans have returned home or have been expelled by force from Pakistan since 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency that tracks migrations.
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