Afghans asked to leave by 31st or face law

PESHAWAR: Thousands of Afghan families have departed for their homeland, while the police have made announcements in some mosques, asking the refugees to pack up and repatriate before August 31.

The refugees are being facilitated in Peshawar and Khyber to ensure their repatriation with respect since their Proof of Registration (PoR) cards have expired on June 30.

Teams have been constituted by the respective district administrations to crack down on the Afghan nationals after September 1.

A large number of Afghans have yet to wind up businesses in Pakistan despite that the deadline for their repatriation is set to end by the weekend.

The government had asked all the Afghan refugees, including those who possessed PoR cards and other such documents, to return to their country by August 31.

A number of them are still waiting for a miracle to happen that extends their stay in a country where they have been living for over four decades. In the past, their stay was extended.

However, the government announced that this was the final deadline and all those living in Pakistan without legal travel documents and visas will be considered illegal.

Many camps set up for the refugees were closed in the last few weeks as the deadline approached.

A large number of shopkeepers and vendors in Board Bazaar, Afghan Colony, Sethi Town, Tehkal and other localities have left, while many are packing up to return to their homeland before the deadline.

“We hoped our stay might be extended yet another time. We have spent our entire life here but now we have no option but to return to Afghanistan that many refugees never even visited in their lifetime,” said 35-year-old Raza Khan.

Muhammad Imran, the owner of an Afghan restaurant, said they were winding up their business in Peshawar but it still needed time. He said he was planning to start his business in Jalalabad city, capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

Pakistan hosted millions of Afghans for decades. Hundreds of thousands of them returned to their homeland in recent years.

A huge number of Afghans are those who were born in Pakistan while many are those who never went to Afghanistan in their entire life. There are many others who married the local women and have children.

As per the UNHCR in March this year, there were a total of 2.1 million registered Afghan nationals in Pakistan out of which 1.3 million Afghan refugees were those having the PoR cards.

Over 52 percent of them are living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Besides, 800,000 Afghans possessed the Afghan Citizen Cards (ACCs).

The PoR cardholders were registered with the support of UNHCR in 2006, while the ACCs were documented in 2017 after the National Action Plan was launched. The authorities have set August 31 as the deadline for different categories of Afghans including those who possess the PoR cards.

The government had set March 31 this year as the deadline for all the illegal Afghans as well as those who possessed ACCs to return to their country.

Before that, October 2023 was set as the deadline for the return of all unregistered Afghans after which hundreds of thousands returned to their homeland. In KP, a large number of Afghans were part of the local society and people shared their mosques, hujras, schools, colleges, businesses and every facility with them wholeheartedly.

Peshawar hosted millions of Afghan nationals than any other city. Thousands of them are running businesses, while others have been doing jobs in the city for the last many decades. Majority of these Afghans are concerned about their future in Afghanistan that lacks basic facilities, jobs and businesses.