KARACHI: Pakistani police have detained hundreds of Afghan refugees holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACCs) across the country, with activists claiming Friday the authorities are also rounding up refugees exempt from the current deportation round, though the government denies the allegation.
According to UN data, Pakistan hosts more than 2.8 million Afghan nationals who crossed the porous border in a desperate attempt to escape decades of war and instability in their home country.
Around 1.3 million of them are formally registered as refugees and hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, which grant them legal protections. Another 800,000 Afghans possess ACCs, a separate identity document issued by the Pakistani government that recognizes them as Afghan nationals without offering refugee status. Last month, the government announced that ACC holders must leave Pakistan by March 31 or face deportation.
Since the start of April, police crackdowns have been reported in different Pakistani cities, though the federal authorities have not released any data on the recent detentions. The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan, have said that 193 ACC holders have been deported from Peshawar.
“In Karachi, more than 100 PoR card holders have been detained, some of whom we managed to get released,” human rights activist Moniza Kakar, who is monitoring the process, told Arab News.
“Similarly, a large number of refugees with legal status have been detained for bribes in different cities of Punjab and the capital Islamabad,” she added.
The ongoing Afghan repatriation process is part of a broader drive launched in 2023, which has so far seen more than 800,000 Afghans expelled.
Pakistani authorities maintain Afghan nationals have been involved in militant attacks and organized crime, accusations Kabul denies.
The crackdown began amid a surge in violence in Pakistan by armed groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), whose leaders Islamabad claims are based in Afghanistan, a charge rejected by the Taliban administration.
Asked about the claims of an indiscriminate crackdown against Afghan nationals, Qadir Yar Tiwana, Director General of Media at the Ministry of Interior, refuted these allegations.
“No PoR card holders have been arrested,” he told Arab News over the phone. “If anyone possessing a PoR card is detained during the process, they are immediately released after verification of their credentials.”
Tiwana said the operation was only targeting “illegal immigrants” and was ongoing.
He added that detailed data on arrests and deportations would be shared at a later stage.
Requests for comment from the Sindh home minister and the Karachi Police chief went unanswered.
Hajji Abdullah Shah Bukhari, chairman of Afghan refugees in Sindh, agreed with Tiwana.
“Over 300 ACC holders have been detained in Karachi,” he said. “They [the police] are also taking some PoR card holders, but they [the refugees] are set free once their credentials are verified.”
Kakar, however, said this was only done after these refugees bribed the police.
“Hundreds of registered PoR card holders have contacted us saying they have been arrested and bribes were demanded of them,” she asserted.
Muzaffar Shah, a resident of Islamabad, corroborated these accounts, saying numerous refugees holding PoR cards had been taken from his neighborhood despite showing police their identity.
“The UNHCR is silent, the Taliban are quiet and the government of Pakistan is quiet, while poor refugees are facing hardship,” Shah, himself a registered refugee, said over the phone, referring to governmental functionaries and officials of the UN refugee agency.
Rahmatullah Jan, a refugee in Karachi, recalled being picked up alongside ACC holders in the Sohrab Goth area.
“Despite immediately presenting my PoR card to the raiding police, I was still taken to the station before eventually being released,” he said.
Spokespersons for the UNHCR and the consul general of Afghanistan in Karachi did not respond to requests for comment.
However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Afghan government, agreed to address the issue over the phone.
“We expressed the desire that refugees should not be forced, but rather be left to make their own choice,” he said. “We have also urged Afghan refugees to return to their homeland, and we will welcome them.”