Centre seeks record of Afghan students residing in KP

PESHAWAR: In the wake of the looming deadline for illegal Afghan nationals to leave Pakistan, the Ministry of Interior’s Foreign National Security Cell has sought the record of Afghan students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the provincial government.

In its letter addressed to KP’s interior secretary, the federal ministry said that the Foreign National Security Cell was updating its dashboard related to foreign nationals and needed the data of Afghan students by March 27.

The federal government’s move comes against the backdrop of its directives ordering all illegal aliens, including Afghan citizens, to leave the country by March 31. The interim Afghan Taliban-led administration in Kabul had earlier requested Islamabad to extend the stay of Afghans residing illegally in in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. However, Pakistan had turned down the neighbouring country’s request.

The Afghan nationals, who have documents to go to another country, can stay here till March 31 this year. After this date, they will also have to leave Pakistan.

The Afghans, who have a valid Pakistani visa for the period for which it has been issued, can continue to stay till that time. Government sources have said that the decision to expel Afghan nationals has become inevitable because of the security situation and sensitivity of the twin cities.

As per the statistics revealed by the Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees (CCAR) in February, Pakistan hosts around 2.9 million Afghan refugees of which 0.7 million were unregistered individuals whereas 1.4 million were registered.