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UN agency urges Pakistan to halt expelling Afghans during winter

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(Last Updated On: November 23, 2023)

The U.N. refugee agency on Wednesday urged Pakistan to halt deportation of undocumented Afghan refugees during the harsh winter season, as police continued to search homes and expel Afghanis who had not already left, Reuters reported.

Islamabad last month announced it would expel over a million undocumented refugees, mostly Afghans, amid a row with Kabul over charges that it harbours anti-Pakistan militants.

According to Reuters over 370,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Oct. 1.

“UNHCR is calling upon the government of Pakistan to halt these mass numbers of returns during this harsh season of winter because the cold in Afghanistan is really deadly and it can take lives,” the agency’s regional spokesman, Babar Baloch, told Reuters TV in an interview.

“We’re talking about desperate women, children and men being on the move, leaving Pakistan in droves,” he said.

The agency has said the Afghans’ return should be voluntary and that Pakistan should identify vulnerable individuals who need international protection.

Pakistan is home to over 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, about 1.7 million of whom are undocumented. Many came after the Islamic Emirate retook Afghanistan in 2021, and a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion, read the report.

Pakistani police have been searching door to door in refugees settlements for those who have not left voluntarily, beginning with the port city of Karachi, where hundreds of thousands of Afghans live. Anyone remaining may be forcefully expelled.

Thousands of Afghans have gone underground in Pakistan to avoid deportation, fearing for their lives if they return to IEA-ruled Afghanistan following the hasty and chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led western forces in 2021, Reuters reported.

Islamabad has thus far not entertained calls by international organizations and refugee agencies to reconsider its deportation plans.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has admitted a petition filed by rights activists seeking to halt the deportation, which is yet to be taken up for a hearing, a court order issued on Wednesday said.

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Iran says work underway to block eastern border with Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Iranian officials say work is intensely underway on the implementation of plan to block the country’s eastern border with Afghanistan.

According to Iranian media, the commander of the Ground Forces of Iran spoke on Thursday at a ceremony in the city of Mashhad about the sealing of the country’s borders with Afghanistan.

Kioumars Heydari added: “According to the measures contemplated by the Islamic Republic, we are in the process of sealing the borders.”

He did not specify the exact timing for the completion of the border sealing plan between Iran and Afghanistan, but added: “Our estimate is that the sealing of the eastern border of the country will be completed as soon as possible.”

Afghanistan and Iran share more than 900 kilometers of common border.

Experts, meanwhile, believe that this will cause a change in dealings with Afghan immigrants.

The Islamic Emirate, however, says fencing on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan will proceed in coordination with the Afghan government.

According to experts, Iran is seeking to solve its security concerns and will spend a lot of money in the process of blocking the border but this border wall will be finished for the benefit of both countries, and drug trafficking and movement of terrorist groups will be at least under control.

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Pakistan rejects IEA’s allegations of Daesh using its territory against Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on Thursday rejected the statements of the Islamic Emirate regarding the use of Pakistan’s soil against Afghanistan by Daesh, calling the remarks as “unwarranted and irresponsible.”

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference that instead of such statements, the Afghan authorities should take effective action against all terror groups, based in Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Pakistan Army claimed that last month’s suicide attack that killed five Chinese nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been planned in Afghanistan and had been carried out by an Afghan.

In reaction, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, Inayatullah Khwarazmi, said that in an area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is under the security of the Pakistan Army, the killing of Chinese nationals is either the weakness of the security institutions or their cooperation with the attackers.

He also said: “We have cases where the Daesh entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, and Pakistani soil was used against our soil, and the attacks are planned in that country.”

Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that Afghan soil is being used in attacks against Pakistan, but this was the first time the Islamic Emirate accused Pakistan of not preventing Daesh from entering Afghanistan.

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Afghans will have a good future under the shadow of Islamic system: Haqqani

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Acting Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani has said in a meeting with the European Union envoy in Kabul that Afghans will have a good future in peace and under the shadow of the Islamic system.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior on Friday, Haqqani, in his meeting with Raffaella Iodice, the European Union’s Chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan, said that Afghans will work hard, endure hardships and will be on the path of progress.

The EU envoy expressed her hope for continued peace and a better future for Afghans, according to the statement.

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