Pakistan to decide who stays, FO says after UN plea over Afghan refugees

The Foreign Office on Friday said that Pakistan will decide who can stay in the country after the UN refugee chief appealed for a pause in deportations of Afghans in the wake of a devastating earthquake.

Thousands of Afghans, including registered refugees, have been crossing back into Afghanistan in recent days, despite the weekend quake that killed at least 2,200 people and destroyed entire villages.

“Given the circumstances, I appeal to the government of Pakistan to pause the implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.

Pakistan has hosted Afghan refugees for over four decades, from the Soviet invasion in the 1980s to the Taliban takeover in 2021. But Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said at a press briefing that undocumented foreigners must leave.

Also Read: UN asks Pakistan to stop sending refugees back after deadly quake in Afghanistan

“Any people with no documentation should leave. This is what Pakistan is doing and what any other country will be doing, including in Europe and other countries... it is our territory, we decide who stays in,” Khan said.

The World Health Organization estimates that 270,000 returnees have recently moved into earthquake-hit districts along the Pakistan border.

Meanwhile, Afghans awaiting relocation to Germany have reported police raids on guest houses where they had been asked to stay for months during the resettlement process.

Many of those in the quake-affected eastern provinces are among more than four million Afghans forced back from Iran and Pakistan in recent years. While some had found relative stability in Pakistan, including access to jobs and education, others were in transit awaiting resettlement in Western countries.