QUETTA: A spokesperson for the governor of the Afghan province of Kandahar which borders Pakistan said on Monday the administration had set up a commission to welcome Afghans returning from the neighbouring country ahead of a November 1 deadline for all illegal immigrants to leave.
Grappling with an economic crisis of its own and a sharp rise in terror attacks, Pakistan's government is increasingly anxious about the presence of Afghans in the country and announced last week that illegal foreigners, including over 1.73 million Afghans, had to leave or face deportation.
The Taliban government in Kabul had earlier called Islamabad’s threat to expel Afghans “unacceptable,” saying they were not to blame for Pakistan’s security problems. But on Monday, a spokesperson for the governor of Kandahar province, which shares a border with Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, said the Afghan administration was making arrangements to welcome back Afghan nationals.
“The Islamic Emirate regime in Afghanistan has constituted a commission to facilitate Afghan citizens returning from Pakistan," Molvi Muhammad Azam, spokesperson for the Kandahar governor, told Arab News over the phone, adding that Afghan officials had visited the Spin Boldak and Torkham border crossings between the two countries to review arrangements for Afghans planning to return.
“We have been planning to establish camps for Afghan returnees at Spin Boldak and Torkham borders,” Azam added.
The Kabul central government has not confirmed setting up the commission.
Pakistan's crackdown against illegal foreigners takes place in the backdrop of a rise in militant attacks, especially since the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021 which Islamabad says has emboldened Pakistani Taliban militants who launch attacks against Pakistan from Afghan soil.
Afghanistan says it does not allow its soil to be used by militants.
Quetta Deputy Commissioner Saad Bin Asad said the city's administration had deported 200 Afghan citizens through the Chaman border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the last week.
“After the given deadline [Nov.1] to Afghan citizens, we will take strict action against all illegal residents in Quetta," Asad told Arab News.
A senior official in the district administration of Chaman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said almost 1,000 Afghan citizens were deported in a week from the Quetta division, which includes Quetta, Pishin, Killa Abdullah, and Chaman districts.
On Sunday, Balochistan's Caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Khan Domki chaired a meeting to review actions against illegal immigrants and announced setting up a monitoring committee comprising Chaman's deputy commissioner and members of law enforcement agencies to monitor the repatriation of Afghan citizens through the Chaman border.
“The deployment of police and Levies forces will be enhanced due to the movement of illegal Afghan citizens in the bordering city,” a statement from the provincial government said.
Three camps would be established at Chaman to facilitate Afghan nationals who were to be deported, with the number of camps "increased" as authorities sped up the repatriation process from Nov. 1, the statement added.
"The current action against illegal immigrants is not against any particular tribe or ethnicity but every single illegal citizen living in Pakistan, who would be repatriated with respect,” CM Domki was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Balochistan government also suggested that Kabul set up a sub-consulate in Chaman to facilitate the visa process for Pakistanis traveling to Afghanistan.
Officials say hundreds of thousands of Afghans have traveled to Pakistan since foreign forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021. Even before then, Pakistan hosted some 1.5 million registered refugees, one of the largest such populations in the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency. More than a million others are estimated to live in Pakistan unregistered.
