Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Pakistan to immediately withdraw its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan”, which primarily targets Afghan refugees, ahead of the authorities’ 31 March deadline.

Pakistani government has asked all “illegal foreigners” and Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave the country before March 31, warning they would otherwise be deported from April 1.

Amnesty International said that all Afghan nationals are required to leave the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi by 31 March

It said that “arbitrarily and forcibly expelling Afghan nationals, including refugees and asylum seekers, will only add to their plight”.

“The Pakistani government’s unyielding and cruel deadline, which is less than a week away, to remove Afghan refugees and asylum seekers from two major cities, resulting in the deportation of many at risk, shows little respect for international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement,”  said Isabelle Lassée, deputy regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International.

The exact details of the Pakistan government’s ‘Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan’ used for deportations has never been made public, but it comes amid a campaign to wrongfully demonize Afghan nationals as so-called criminals and terrorists, Amnesty said.

Isabelle Lassée said that the Pakistani government is only making “a scapegoat of a community that has long been disenfranchised and fleeing persecution.”

Human rights lawyer Moniza Kakar pointed out that forcing Afghan refugees to relocate even within Pakistan is devastating for families. “Many PoR card holders are people who’ve been here for decades, asking them to relocate means you’re asking them to leave homes, businesses, communities and lives they’ve built for years,” she said. 

Lawyer Umer Gillani, who has challenged the deportation orders in Pakistan’s Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court, argued that the March 31 deadline was not legally enforceable. “The official notification has not been issued under any particular law; it is just an executive instruction,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported a sharp decline in Afghan returns and deportations during the first half of March. Between March 1 and 15, returns dropped by 67 per cent, while deportations fell by 50 per cent compared to the previous reporting period (February 16-28).