Islamabad:
Pakistan has transmitted to the United States that he would deport all Afghans who expected resettlement in the United States if the deadline for their relocation or their cases were rejected were not fulfilled.
The message was transmitted through diplomatic channels after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that suspended the Afghan refugee settlement program for 90 days.
Thousands of Afghan, who worked for the United States and other Western countries during their campaign against Afghan Taliban, fled Pakistan and sought a temporary stay.
Pakistan accepted that the US and their allies request to allow them to remain in the country for a short period before they leave Islamabad for their respective destinations.
The United States and its allies promised special immigration visas to all Afghans who worked for them.
However, the process of its relocation was thoroughly slow during the administration time of Biden.
The previous government of the United States had agreed to relocate all eligible Afghans for a special immigration visa in September 2025.
However, with President Trump suspending the program, complying with the deadline seems to be impossible.
Pakistan is concerned that such Afghan are never relocated in the US. Given the tough anti -immigrant policy that the current administration belongs.
That was the reason why he decided to convey in unequivocal terms to the Trump administration that would not allow these Afghan to remain in Pakistan beyond September 2025.
None of the parties have shared the exact number of Afghans stranded in Pakistan, but some estimates suggest that it is between 15,000 and 25,000.
In a recent interview with TRT World, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ishaq Dar, confirmed that Pakistan would evict all Afghans if they were not transferred to the United States on time.
“If any refugee who undertake to be taken by another country after due process, no matter the timeline, if it does not happen and the country refuses, then for us, that will be an illegal immigrant in Pakistan, and we could be forced to send such refugees to their original country, which is Afghanistan,” said Dar.
However, Foreign Minister left the door open to talk with Washington to solve the situation.
In general, Pakistan has decided to squeeze politics towards Afghan refugees. It is contemplating to guarantee the repatriation of all Afghans living in the country.
The campaign was first launched in October 2023 against undocumented Afghans, but the government now wants to extend this to all Afghans, regardless of their legal status.
The reason behind the impulse of Pakistan for the eviction of Afghan comes from their tense ties with the Taliban regime.
