OAN’s Stephanie Stahl
5:55 PM – Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Pakistan has issued an order for all illegal immigrants in the country to leave by November.
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The deadline comes after it was determined that 14 of the 24 suicide bombings that transpired in the country over the last year were reportedly orchestrated by Afghan nationals.
However, Pakistani authorities have not specified how they intend to enforce the departure of an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrants, or how they would locate them for deportation.
Islamabad’s announcement signals a decline in its relations with Kabul, which has already been deteriorating amid clashes over border security that occurred last month.
The Taliban government has urged Pakistan to rethink its “unacceptable” decision.
Pakistan has provided refuge to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees over several decades, with a significant surge occurring after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.
According to a United Nations report, approximately 1.3 million Afghans have formal refugee status, while an additional 880,000 have been granted legal status to reside in Pakistan.
The 1.7 million people who are in the country illegally are those who have not yet gained refugee status.
On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti declared that those asylum seekers will have to leave the country by the end of the month.
“If they do not go… then all the law enforcement agencies in the provinces or federal government will be utilized to deport them,” Bugti said according to state media reports.
No further details have been announced on how such an operation would take place.
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