Reacting to the announcement by the newly elected Government of Pakistan to expand and expedite its plans to unlawfully deport Afghan refugees in the country after the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr next week, James Jennion, Campaigner for the Refugee and Migrants’ Rights at Amnesty International, said:
“The Pakistan authorities’ callous disregard for the persecution, serious human rights violations and humanitarian catastrophe that await Afghan refugees if deported to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is heart-breaking. Instead of heeding repeated global calls to halt deportations, the newly elected Pakistani government has disappointingly now extended the deportation drive to Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders as well.
“The decision endangers the lives of over 800,000 Afghan refugees across Pakistan and threatens to unleash another wave of harassment and detentions after the holy month of Ramadan.
“Pakistan’s ‘Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan’ is in violation of refugee and international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, and puts at risk the lives of all Afghan refugees, particularly women, girls, journalists, human rights defenders, women protestors, artists, and former Afghan government and security officials.
The Government’s decision also lacks transparency and arbitrarily cancels the validity of the ACC documentation that was issued by the Government of Pakistan itself.
Amensty calls on the Pakistani authorities to immediately reverse these decisions and urgently pass human rights-compliant law protecting the rights of refugees in the country and become a state party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees along with its Protocols.”
Many Afghans living in fear of persecution following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 fled to Pakistan, where they have been subjected to waves of arbitrary detentions, arrests and the threat of deportation.
In October 2023, a phase 1 of the `Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan was announced with a 30-day deadline for “undocumented” Afghan refugees to leave the country or be subject to deportation putting 1.4 million refugees at risk.
Since then, Amnesty International has documented a complete lack of transparency, due process and accountability in the detentions and unlawful deportations of Afghan refugees in Pakistna, which was exacerbated by increased harassment and hostility towards them.
