Pakistani forces have continued to arrest and harass Afghan immigrants, including those, who have been there for work or treatment.
In a report on June 20 on the occasion of World Refugee Day, Amnesty International has called on the government of Pakistan to stop arbitrarily arresting and persecuting Afghan refugees and asylum seekers immediately.
It was stated in the report of Amnesty International, that these Afghans fled their country for fear of being persecuted, but they are not safe there either.
The report reads: “Pakistan government should stop persecuting and arbitrarily arresting Afghan asylum seekers. After the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, many Afghans went to Pakistan, where they faced arbitrary detentions, arrests and threats of deportation. Due to the delay in the registration process, most of them do not have registration cards and this makes it easier for the Pakistani police to harass them and extort money from them.”
Although the officials of the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad have talked with the authorities in Pakistan in order to solve the problems of Afghans living in Pakistan, but it seems that they have not been able to solve their problems and now they have asked the UN High Commission for Refugees to cooperate in this regard.
Sardar Ahmad Shakib, acting head of the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan, said: “I would like to thank the people and government of Pakistan, for providing hospitality to Afghan refugees in the past 40 years. But unfortunately, I have to mention that recently, Afghans have faced serious problems and the police are harassing them under various pretexts. We want the government of Pakistan to stop the persecution of Afghans.”
Meanwhile, political experts believed that if the arrest and persecution of Afghans in Pakistan continues, not only will criticism of Pakistan increase, but it will also have a negative impact on the ties between the two countries.
According to the International Organization for Migration, there are currently more than 3.7 million Afghans living in Pakistan, of which only 1.4 million have been registered.
