Pakistan wants to remove all Afghan refugees from the country and they face expulsion in the near future, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad warned Wednesday.
The warning comes as the relationship between the two countries continues to deteriorate, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to curb cross-border attacks.
“This process of detaining Afghans, which began without any formal announcement, has not been officially communicated to the Embassy of Afghanistan in Islamabad through any formal correspondence,” the embassy said.
“Ultimately, officials from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that there is a definitive and final plan to deport/remove all Afghan refugees not only from Islamabad and Rawalpindi but also from the entire country in the near future,” it added.
Last year, Pakistan announced that illegal Afghan refugees would not be allowed to live in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The Islamabad administration made this announcement after claiming that the Afghan refugees took part in the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s protest rally held in the capital in November last year.
In November 2023, Pakistan launched a widely criticised repatriation programme aimed at returning millions of Afghans, regardless of their legal status
