File photo. Wakil Kohsar—AFP
Pakistan’s decision to expel illegally residing foreigners—primarily Afghans—has been criticized by the U.N. and global rights bodies, who have urged Islamabad to facilitate refugees that could be marked for death if they are forced to involuntarily return to their homeland. In response, Pakistani authorities have emphasized that there will be no change to the Oct. 31 deadline for the voluntary exit of illegal foreigners, adding registered refugees and visitors with valid visas will face no issues. They have further maintained that the decision is in line with Pakistan’s “sovereign domestic laws,” adding that “most” illegal foreigners are involved in “anti-state and criminal activities” that no state can tolerate.
According to interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, an estimated 1.1 million Afghans are residing in Pakistan illegally, including 400,000 who have entered the country since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. They are believed to primarily reside in Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi, where the Afghan Consulate has hired a lawyer to represent Afghans incarcerated in Pakistani prisons for violation of migration laws. Overall, per human rights bodies, at least 4,000 illegal Afghans have been arrested across Pakistan over the past 15 months, with the numbers expected to grow after Nov. 1.
The Afghan resistance to the planned deportations is understandable. Many of Pakistan’s illegal residents entered the country in the 1980s under Gen. Ziaul Haq, using travel documents issued by the Soviet Union-backed Afghan government; others were born here but are not official citizens. The latter, especially, have never actually lived in Afghanistan and their forced exits will be painful to observe. Yet, Pakistan cannot fully be blamed for its belated decision to enforce the state’s writ. No state can indefinitely tolerate porous borders with no documentation of migrants. There is also pushback against Western states’ failure to fulfill promises to resettle Afghan refugees after the return to power of the Taliban, leaving Pakistan as a perpetual host. Not to mention the increasing unwillingness of Pakistan to cater to Afghan needs over Kabul’s refusal to cooperate in preventing the use of its soil by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which continues to attack inside Pakistan from bases across the border.
In short, Pakistan’s desire to enforce its laws is a positive development. Unfortunately, in this instance, it will inevitably produce pain for hundreds of thousands who have been betrayed by successive vows of resettlement and decades of war in their homeland.