Thousands of Afghan Emigrants Have Been Expelled from Jails in Pakistan and Iran
By Mohajir Times
While Iran and Pakistan swiftly deport Afghanistan migrants, thousands of Afghan citizens who were imprisoned in Pakistani and Iranian jails have also been returned to Afghanistan. According to Radio Azadi, Abdul-Jabbar Takhari, a Taliban official consular in the Karachi of Pakistan, stated that in the past two months, more than 460 Afghan migrants, despite having legal residency, were detained and subsequently returned to Afghanistan after being released from prison.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Migrants and Repatriation of the Taliban stated that Pakistan expelled 215 Afghan migrants through the Torkham border into Afghanistan on Thursday, December 20, 2023. Simultaneously, another 1,750 Afghan emigrants were either expelled from Iran through the Islam Qala border or voluntarily returned to their country. According to the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Islamabad currently hosts more than three million Afghans. However, over 4.5 million Afghan refugees live in Iran, the majority of whom are Afghanistan nationals.
Taliban and Pakistani authorities claim that over half a million Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan in the past three months. In early October, Islamabad announced that all 1.7 million "Undocumented Refugees" had to leave the country by November 1. Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants have been forced to leave Iran. Iranian authorities say that more than half of the five million Afghan migrants living in the country currently lack the necessary documents for residency in Iran.
Most Afghanistan nationals returning from Iran and Pakistan complain vehemently about harassment, abuse, and mistreatment by Iranian and Pakistani police. Human rights observers reported on the treatment of Pakistani authorities, stating that police demand bribes from Afghanistan emigrants, conduct nightly inspections of migrant homes, and even demolish them. Afghan migrants expelled from Iran also have similar complaints about mistreatment by the police.
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