ISLAMABAD: The government in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has repatriated over 300,000 foreign nationals since last year, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said this week according to state media, as Pakistan continues its deportation drive that it says is aimed at expelling “illegal immigrants” from the country. 

The government launched a deportation drive last year after a spike in suicide bombings which the Pakistan government, without providing evidence, has blamed on Afghan nationals. Islamabad also says Afghans are involved in smuggling, militant violence and other crimes. 

A cash-strapped Pakistan navigating record inflation, alongside a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program last year, had also said undocumented migrants had drained its resources for decades.

Pakistan’s state broadcaster Radio Pakistan confirmed last week Islamabad had deported over 620,000 Afghan nationals in total since last year’s deportation drive. 

“More than three hundred thousand foreigners from the province have been repatriated to their native countries,” Gandapur told a delegation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday, according to Radio Pakistan. 

The KP chief minister assured the delegation that the provincial government was providing all possible facilities to foreigners who are voluntarily leaving for their countries. He said the KP government is willing to provide health care facilities to Afghan nationals if the UNHCR issues health cards for them. 

Until the government initiated the expulsion drive last year, Pakistan was home to over four million Afghan migrants and refugees, of which around 1.7 million were undocumented, as per government figures. 

Afghans make up the largest portion of migrants, many of whom came after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, but a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Islamabad insists the deportation drive is not aimed specifically at Afghans but at all those living illegally in Pakistan.

In October 2023, Pakistan announced phase one of the “Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan” with a 30-day deadline for “undocumented” aliens to leave the country or be subject to deportation, putting 1.4 million Afghan refugees at risk.

In phase two of the “repatriation plan,” around 600,00 Afghans who held Pakistan-issued Afghan citizenship cards (ACCs) will be expelled while phase three is expected to target those with UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards.

Earlier in April, the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) issued a notification validating the extension of the PoR card till June 30 this year.

Before the deportation drive, people used to daily cross the Pak-Afghan border back and forth for business and personal purposes.

The drive has led to a spike in tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan. The Taliban deny militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks, calling Pakistan’s security challenges a domestic issue.