No Afghan refugee will be expelled by force in KP, says Gandapur
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People arriving from Afghanistan gather at the Friendship Gate crossing point in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman, Pakistan August 27, 2021. — Reuters
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During an ongoing campaign against non -documentary foreign nationals and Afghan Citizens (ACCS) holders launched by the center, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced on Friday that no Afghan refugees from the northwestern province of the country would be “forcibly deported”.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the KPCM said: “No Afghan refugees will be expelled from KP by force. We are against the deportation of such forced Afghan refugees.”
His comments came at a time when the federal government has begun the process of returning home to non -documentary migrants and Afghan Citizens Cards (ACCS) holders, as the deadline for their voluntary withdrawal ended March 31, 2025.
The country has been hosting millions of Afghans for almost five decades. In the past few years, hundreds of them have returned to their country, but still more than 2.1 million KP and other provinces.
Pakistani authorities March 31, along with all illegal Afghans, as well as the deadline for those with ACC cards to return to their country during the increasing incidents of terrorism in the country.
In his conversation with journalists today, CM Gandpur said: “We have cultural and historical relations with Afghan refugees,” he added that the refugees who want to voluntarily leave will be provided resources to facilitate their return.
In response to a question, the Chief Minister said that the only way to move forward with Afghanistan is through negotiations.
Raising questions about the intentions of the center, the KPCM said it was still waiting for the federal government to approve the reference terms (TOR) to initiate talks with the interim Afghanistan government under the leadership of the Afghan Taliban.
It is mentioned here that the KP government planned to send Kabul to the provincial jirga to resolve bilateral issues, including cross -border attacks and the use of Afghan soil by terrorists.
CM Gandapur said that stability in the region was linked to peace in Afghanistan. He said that PTI has a solution to the threat of terrorism facing the country.
Responding to the government’s allegations about the re -resettlement of terrorists and the restoration of militancy in the country, the Chief Minister termed the Treasury Bench’s statements “extremely irresponsible”.
Number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan
According to data obtained by Geo News, there are currently 2.1 million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Sources in the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions (Zafron) say 1.4 million Afghan refugees are legally registered, while 800,000 Afghan citizens have ‘Afghan Citizens Card’ (ACC), but now their establishment is considered illegal. However, the government claims that the total number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is three million, all of which will be brought back home this year under a plan for the deportation of foreign nationals.
Afghans living in Pakistan come in four types
Afghan citizens living in Pakistan for decades come in four types.
In the first type, Afghan citizens who fled to Pakistan due to instability in Afghanistan and were given the official status of refugees. In 2007, Pakistan issued evidence of registration (POR) card to these refugees, which now has about 1.3 million. The government issued these cards only once, and from time to time renewing them, the current justification expires on June 30, 2025.
The second type includes Afghan citizens who were issued an Afghan Citizens Card (ACC). In 2016, about 800,000 people received these cards, and they are now being brought back home as part of the deportation efforts.
The third type is Afghan citizens who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban occupation in 2021. These men were sheltered under the International Protocol. While the Pakistani government initially claimed that 600,000 Afghans had arrived after the US withdrawal, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says only 200,000 were officially registered.
The fourth category includes non -documentary Afghan citizens who lack the status of both Purpur and ACC and are not registered as a seeking asylum since the arrival of 2021. This category also includes those who have married in Pakistan and obtained fake national identity cards. In the past two years, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has been canceling such fake identification IDs through its national verification and renewal campaign, now ranging on illegal residents.
