Illegal Immigrants Deportation Operation
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ghazi52
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The federal cabinet on Wednesday approved changes in the rules and regulations to facilitate the Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan, who neither have any legal proof of entry nor processing fee, and want to leave for a third country.
The cabinet meeting was presided over by Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.
Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi, while addressing a news conference along with the health and IT (information technology) ministers after the cabinet meeting, said according to the new rules and regulations, the Afghan nationals, who have to evacuate to a third country and do not have any legal documents or processing fees, would be fined $400 for overstaying in Pakistan instead of $800.
The deadline for stay of such Afghan nationals in Pakistan had also been extended from December 31, 2023 to February 29, 2024, he said, adding the fine, after the due date, would be imposed at the rate of $100 per month with a maximum limit of $800.
He said the measures were aimed at encouraging the Afghans residing illegally in Pakistan to obtain legal documents or finalise evacuation agreements as soon as possible in a third country.
The cabinet meeting was presided over by Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.
Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi, while addressing a news conference along with the health and IT (information technology) ministers after the cabinet meeting, said according to the new rules and regulations, the Afghan nationals, who have to evacuate to a third country and do not have any legal documents or processing fees, would be fined $400 for overstaying in Pakistan instead of $800.
The deadline for stay of such Afghan nationals in Pakistan had also been extended from December 31, 2023 to February 29, 2024, he said, adding the fine, after the due date, would be imposed at the rate of $100 per month with a maximum limit of $800.
He said the measures were aimed at encouraging the Afghans residing illegally in Pakistan to obtain legal documents or finalise evacuation agreements as soon as possible in a third country.
ghazi52
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Pakistan-deported Afghans waiting for US resettlement
ReutersWASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deportation drive has repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States, an advocacy group and Afghan applicants say, adding that Pakistani authorities often ignored US embassy letters of protection.
That complicates the efforts of such Afghans, as the US has shuttered its embassy in Kabul and they must also grapple with human rights restrictions and stubborn financial and humanitarian crises in their homeland.
More than 450,000 Afghans have returned home, the United Nations says, many now living in difficult winter conditions near the border.
At least 130 Afghans being processed for US special immigration visas or refugee resettlement in the United States have been deported, said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of groups helping such efforts.
Country to implement ODR to check illegal immigration
He cited data from coalition members and details provided to the US government by its Islamabad embassy, which he has seen. Pakistani police have arrested more than 230 such Afghans, although about 80 have since been released, he added.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior State Department official said the United States had “no formal way to track these kinds of cases”, adding that the number of Afghans deported while awaiting US resettlement was “very small”.
Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
As the clock ticked down to Nov. 1, the embassy e-mailed protection letters to some 25,000 Afghans to prove to Pakistani authorities they were being processed for resettlement in the United States, after its last troops left Kabul in 2021.
Police officers, along with workers from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), check the identity cards of Afghan citizens during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. REUTERS
A US State Department spokesperson said Washington had also supplied Pakistan with a list of Afghans “in the US resettlement pipelines” after it unveiled the deportation plan in October.
VanDiver and two Western diplomatic sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the issue, said local authorities had ignored the letters in many instances.
“The letters matter in some cases and not in others,” said VanDiver.
“Not all local officers are abiding by it.”
The senior State Department official said the United States has examples of Pakistani police respecting the letters, but gave no details.
Reuters spoke with two Afghan families whose members were deported after showing police the letter, and an Afghan who was detained despite the letter.
The latter said he was released with a warning that he would be arrested again without a visa extension. Refugee advocates and Afghans say the deportations and arrests underscore the precarious nature of the long wait facing Afghans whom Washington has vowed to protect and resettle, many of them told to travel to a third country for processing.
Undocumented
Many Afghans entered Pakistan with visas that expired as the processing of their SIV or refugee resettlement applications languished, facing them with long renewal times and high fees.
One applicant for refugee status, whom Reuters is not naming for security reasons, said he sold almost all he owned in Oct 2022 to move his family to Pakistan from the Afghan capital for processing.
All seven had passports and visas, he said. But mounting costs ate into his savings, and though he turned to selling street food to earn money, he could barely meet rent and utilities, putting out of reach the hundreds of dollars in fees needed to renew the one-year visas that expired.
“We had no money for food, how could we apply for visas?” he said. Last month, police knocked on his door, but would not accept the embassy letter - seen by Reuters - that carried his refugee application number.
“They gave us two hours’ time to pack our belongings,” said the former employee of a US-funded women’s advocacy organisation. He tried calling the US embassy, but could not get through. Now, he is lying low with his family in Kabul.
“I have five children, have no house, I’m currently living in the home of one of my relatives,” he said. “I can’t apply for a job here. I don’t know what to do.”
Forced out of Pakistan, Afghan waste pickers count their losses
US officials say they are trying to keep in touch with the thousands of Afghans in Pakistan through an emergency hotline based on the WhatsApp communications app in the languages of Dari, Pashto and English.
The state department has successfully averted deportations in several cases flagged up on the hotline, the senior State official said.
Ahmadullah, a former US government worker resettled to the United States in 2021, said his stepmother and two sisters had been waiting in Pakistan for the processing of applications for P1 visas, meant for those at risk of persecution, but were deported and living in fear in Kabul.
Edema Bibi, 66, an Afghan citizen, stands at the entrance of her house as a police officer checks her registration card, during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. –REUTERS
Police came to his uncle’s home in Pakistan’s northern city of Peshawar on a mid-November night, saw the expired visas in the women’s passports, ignored their embassy letters, drove them to the border and ordered them to leave, Ahmadullah said.
“They didn’t even let them pack,” said Ahmadullah, who was evacuated with his family from Kabul as the last US troops left in August 2021.
Ahmadullah, who wanted his last name withheld to protect his family, said the women had sought extension of their Pakistani visas.
Now, they feel at risk because of his work and the Taliban’s curbs on women appearing in public unaccompanied by a close male relative. They switch between their Kabul house and relatives’ homes to avoid attention, he added.
The Taliban, who oppose Pakistan’s mass deportation, say they have a general amnesty for former foes of their 20-year insurgency and will support those returning.
Few Afghans accept those assurances and live in fear of the Taliban’s curbs on women and a humanitarian crisis fuelled by foreign aid cuts and the severance of ties to global banking.
Islamabad says it is battling economic and security crises and cannot host the 600,000 Afghans who have arrived since the Taliban takeover, swelling the burden of hosting millions who fled during decades of war.
Border trade halts after Pakistan imposes restrictions on Afghans
This month, the caretaker government said it would extend to February a Dec. 31 deadline for Afghans seeking resettlement in third countries to renew paperwork, while halving an overstay fee for those leaving with expired visas.
Three senior US officials, including Afghanistan Special Representative Thomas West, recently visited Islamabad for talks on the issue, but the outcome is not clear.
Pakistan-deported Afghans waiting for US resettlement
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deportation drive has repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the...
www.brecorder.com
Pakistan Ka Beta
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RescueRanger
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Whilst I do empathize with the Afghans, this is not a problem the Pakistani state should have to lug responsibility for. Essentially these Afghan's were told (rightly or wrongly) they would get entry into European countries /USA and have now been stuck behind red-tape and heel dragging of functionaries, undocumented migrants are a security risk whichever way you look at the picture.Pakistan-deported Afghans waiting for US resettlement
Reuters
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deportation drive has repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States, an advocacy group and Afghan applicants say, adding that Pakistani authorities often ignored US embassy letters of protection.
That complicates the efforts of such Afghans, as the US has shuttered its embassy in Kabul and they must also grapple with human rights restrictions and stubborn financial and humanitarian crises in their homeland.
More than 450,000 Afghans have returned home, the United Nations says, many now living in difficult winter conditions near the border.
At least 130 Afghans being processed for US special immigration visas or refugee resettlement in the United States have been deported, said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of groups helping such efforts.
Country to implement ODR to check illegal immigration
He cited data from coalition members and details provided to the US government by its Islamabad embassy, which he has seen. Pakistani police have arrested more than 230 such Afghans, although about 80 have since been released, he added.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior State Department official said the United States had “no formal way to track these kinds of cases”, adding that the number of Afghans deported while awaiting US resettlement was “very small”.
Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
As the clock ticked down to Nov. 1, the embassy e-mailed protection letters to some 25,000 Afghans to prove to Pakistani authorities they were being processed for resettlement in the United States, after its last troops left Kabul in 2021.
Police officers, along with workers from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), check the identity cards of Afghan citizens during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. REUTERS
A US State Department spokesperson said Washington had also supplied Pakistan with a list of Afghans “in the US resettlement pipelines” after it unveiled the deportation plan in October.
VanDiver and two Western diplomatic sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the issue, said local authorities had ignored the letters in many instances.
“The letters matter in some cases and not in others,” said VanDiver.
“Not all local officers are abiding by it.”
The senior State Department official said the United States has examples of Pakistani police respecting the letters, but gave no details.
Reuters spoke with two Afghan families whose members were deported after showing police the letter, and an Afghan who was detained despite the letter.
The latter said he was released with a warning that he would be arrested again without a visa extension. Refugee advocates and Afghans say the deportations and arrests underscore the precarious nature of the long wait facing Afghans whom Washington has vowed to protect and resettle, many of them told to travel to a third country for processing.
Undocumented
Many Afghans entered Pakistan with visas that expired as the processing of their SIV or refugee resettlement applications languished, facing them with long renewal times and high fees.
One applicant for refugee status, whom Reuters is not naming for security reasons, said he sold almost all he owned in Oct 2022 to move his family to Pakistan from the Afghan capital for processing.
All seven had passports and visas, he said. But mounting costs ate into his savings, and though he turned to selling street food to earn money, he could barely meet rent and utilities, putting out of reach the hundreds of dollars in fees needed to renew the one-year visas that expired.
“We had no money for food, how could we apply for visas?” he said. Last month, police knocked on his door, but would not accept the embassy letter - seen by Reuters - that carried his refugee application number.
“They gave us two hours’ time to pack our belongings,” said the former employee of a US-funded women’s advocacy organisation. He tried calling the US embassy, but could not get through. Now, he is lying low with his family in Kabul.
“I have five children, have no house, I’m currently living in the home of one of my relatives,” he said. “I can’t apply for a job here. I don’t know what to do.”
Forced out of Pakistan, Afghan waste pickers count their losses
US officials say they are trying to keep in touch with the thousands of Afghans in Pakistan through an emergency hotline based on the WhatsApp communications app in the languages of Dari, Pashto and English.
The state department has successfully averted deportations in several cases flagged up on the hotline, the senior State official said.
Ahmadullah, a former US government worker resettled to the United States in 2021, said his stepmother and two sisters had been waiting in Pakistan for the processing of applications for P1 visas, meant for those at risk of persecution, but were deported and living in fear in Kabul.
Edema Bibi, 66, an Afghan citizen, stands at the entrance of her house as a police officer checks her registration card, during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. –REUTERS
Police came to his uncle’s home in Pakistan’s northern city of Peshawar on a mid-November night, saw the expired visas in the women’s passports, ignored their embassy letters, drove them to the border and ordered them to leave, Ahmadullah said.
“They didn’t even let them pack,” said Ahmadullah, who was evacuated with his family from Kabul as the last US troops left in August 2021.
Ahmadullah, who wanted his last name withheld to protect his family, said the women had sought extension of their Pakistani visas.
Now, they feel at risk because of his work and the Taliban’s curbs on women appearing in public unaccompanied by a close male relative. They switch between their Kabul house and relatives’ homes to avoid attention, he added.
The Taliban, who oppose Pakistan’s mass deportation, say they have a general amnesty for former foes of their 20-year insurgency and will support those returning.
Few Afghans accept those assurances and live in fear of the Taliban’s curbs on women and a humanitarian crisis fuelled by foreign aid cuts and the severance of ties to global banking.
Islamabad says it is battling economic and security crises and cannot host the 600,000 Afghans who have arrived since the Taliban takeover, swelling the burden of hosting millions who fled during decades of war.
Border trade halts after Pakistan imposes restrictions on Afghans
This month, the caretaker government said it would extend to February a Dec. 31 deadline for Afghans seeking resettlement in third countries to renew paperwork, while halving an overstay fee for those leaving with expired visas.
Three senior US officials, including Afghanistan Special Representative Thomas West, recently visited Islamabad for talks on the issue, but the outcome is not clear.
Pakistan-deported Afghans waiting for US resettlement
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deportation drive has repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the...www.brecorder.com
RescueRanger
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I agree with you here. This is not Pakistan’s problem. But how did Pakistan get roped into letting the applicants wait out the red tape on this side of the border in the first place? There is some blame on it too. Were commitments made? Why? Or are they now being broken? Neither possibility seems appropriate.
RescueRanger
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As always I can trust you to ask the correct questions. Well to be honest with you regarding Pakistan getting roped into this, you can blame the UNHCR on that front:
As per EUAA report: Between January 2021 and February 2022, UNHCR documented 117 547 new arrivals from Afghanistan in Pakistan, with a significant peak of 35 289 persons in August 2021.
Source: https://euaa.europa.eu/news-events/euaa-publishes-report-afghan-refugees-pakistan
STIMSON report makes for troubling reading:
"Since August 2021, when the Taliban’s seized power following the U.S. and NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, over 600,000 Afghan refugees and migrants have entered neighboring Pakistan."
UNHCR's plan has been to house the Afghan refugees permanantly inside Pakistan treating them as stateless people essentially forcing Pakistan to issue POR cards:
Full report: UNHCR Pakistan Operational Update Jan-June 2021 (Available online)
To quote the Policy Paper from STIMSON:
Since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, over 600,000 Afghan migrants and refugees have entered Pakistan.3 If Pakistan continues its ad-hoc refugee policies without increased donor support and assistance for third-state settlement, the already-precarious situation is likely to become a crisis. Economic growth in financial year 2023 has dropped from 2 percent to a projected 0.29 percent, so there is little hope for Pakistan’s stressed public sector to provide refugees with proper housing, livelihood, education, and health facilities.
In June 2022, the Pakistani government approved a new transit visa for Afghans who had already been granted a third-country settlement,26 though most Afghans in Pakistan do not plan to settle in a third country.
Third-country settlement appears unlikely for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, despite provision in international law. As of February 2023, the United Nations reports that 251,000 Afghans have approached UNHRC Pakistan for registration and asylum requests since August 2021,20 which will require USD $176 million in funds to resource in fiscal year 2023.21 Of that figure, 43 percent is currently funded by donor states, including USD $16.2 million by the United States. Since withdrawal, the U.S. has processed roughly 84,600 Afghan refugees through Operation Allies Welcome.
Full report: https://www.stimson.org/2023/us-pakistan-cooperation-on-afghan-refugee-management/
So the question has to be asked, why should Pakistan shoulder the burden despite lack of international aid or support on this front?
And I can count on you for detailed and meticulously relevant answers. Many thanks.
A followup question if I may: Is Pakistan not keeping its end of the deal with UNHCR? The devil here would hide in the details of the transit visa it agreed to issue to this class of refugees.
RescueRanger
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To be honest with you I think Pakistan and the UNHCR's relationship on this issue can be described as strained at best. As per IHL Pakistan cannot deport refugee's but you will note Pakistan doesn't have a formal refugee/asylum procedures or domestic law spelling out the definition of refugee and protections afforded to the same despite being a signatory to the convention.
The continued laxity, frailty and ad hocism of government procedures in Pakistan never ceases to amaze me.
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Pakistan Ka Beta
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RescueRanger
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You are most welcome.
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