Over 12,000 Afghan Citizens in Pakistan, Iran Jails

More than 7,000 Afghans are in Pakistani jails while 5,124 more are in prisons in Iran, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said on Thursday.

Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi, Minister of Refugees and Repatriation said that the exact numbers of Afghans in Pakistani jails are not clear yet but currently, there are 7,000 Afghans are in prisons in Pakistan.

Recently, more than  600 Afghan prisoners have been transferred to Afghanistan from Iran, where they will complete the remaining judicial processes in accordance to the Afghan laws.

The prisoners have been transferred to Afghanistan based on the government’s signed agreement to exchange prisoners with Iran.

“Defending the rights of Afghans abroad, we have signed a prisoner exchange agreement with Iran to transfer all Afghan prisoners from Iran to Afghanistan in multiple phases,” Afghan President Ghani said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.  

Some Afghan politicians believe the government should establish a special court to investigate the Afghan prisoners’ cases after being transferred to their homeland.  

“A special court should be formed so it could assess cases of the prisoners and then take a decision,” said Abdulhadi Arghandiwal, head of a Hezb-e-Islami party faction.  

This comes as the government has signed no agreement with Pakistan to exchange prisoners yet, and that lets the Afghan prisoners to spend their sentence term in Pakistani jails.