Police in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh have arrested more than 250 Afghan refugees and migrants as part of a new crackdown aimed at repatriating undocumented Afghans.
Most of the arrests and detentions have occurred in Karachi since September 11. The seaport is the capital of Sindh and also serves as the key industrial and trade hub for the Muslim nation.
"The government has directed the police and other [law enforcement] organizations to arrest Afghans living illegally in Sindh and elsewhere in the country," Kamran Tissori, the governor of Sindh, told journalists on September 11.
Afghan refugees and Pakistani human rights campaigners say the arrests are aimed at harassing mostly impoverished Afghans who cannot return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because of security fears or economic reasons.
"The mass arrest of Afghan refugees is based on their racial profiling," Muniza Kakar, a lawyer who has voluntarily represented Afghan refugees arrested in Karachi, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
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Kakar said that many of the detained Afghans possessed cards issued by the Pakistani government identifying them as Afghans.
"Urgent action needed to protect refugee rights," she wrote.
Afghan refugees in Pakistan complain of harassment and a lack of information and help in completing the paperwork needed for extending their stay in the country.
“After my Pakistani visa ended in July, I repeatedly applied to extend it but the government, unfortunately, has not processed it,” said one such refugee, who said his name was Ahmad.
“The Pakistani government announcement has created huge pressure and most of us now face mental health problems,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
The Pakistani government issued Proof of Registration cards for more than 1 million Afghans that expired on June 30.
Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Radio Mashaal that the UNHCR is discussing the issue with the federal authorities in Islamabad.*
"I am extremely afraid of being arrested whenever I go to the market to buy groceries," said Aimal Habibi, an Afghan refugee in Sindh.
Since the early 1980s, Pakistan has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world.
But it has not signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It also is not a signatory of the 1967 protocol, which broadens the definition of who can be considered a refugee.
Islamabad currently hosts about 1.4 million documented Afghan refugees. An equal number of undocumented Afghans are estimated to also be living in the country.