Pakistan has announced the expansion of its ongoing drive to expel undocumented refugees, saying it will soon also begin deporting millions of Afghans living legally in the country back to Afghanistan.
More than 300,000 primarily undocumented Afghans have left Pakistan after Islamabad announced last month that more than 1.7 million undocumented foreigners should leave by November 1 or face arrests and deportations.
They are among the 4.4 million Afghans Islamabad estimates to be living in the country. However, the UN says some 3.7 million Afghans fleeing conflict and poverty live in Pakistan.
“Soon we will begin repatriating all the registered [Afghan] refugees,” Jan Achakzai, the caretaker information minister in the southwestern Balochistan Province, told journalists on November 9.
SEE ALSO: The Azadi Briefing: Taliban, Pakistan In War Of Words Over Mass Expulsion Of Afghan RefugeesAchakzai did not give a date for when the new repatriations will begin but said the effort will start after Islamabad completes deporting undocumented Afghans.
“The Afghan leaders should prepare to look after their citizens,” he said. “We are under no contractual obligation to look after these refugees.”
This is one of the first public announcements about extending Islamabad's expulsion policy to Afghan refugees legally living in the country. Earlier, Pakistani officials had insisted they were only seeking to expel Afghans and other foreigners living illegally in the country.
The announcement follows the November 8 statement by Pakistan's caretaker prime minister, Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar. He said Islamabad was deporting Afghans in response to Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers’ reluctance to cooperate with Islamabad over the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Islamabad blames the TTP, which it says is sheltered by the Taliban, for rising terrorist attacks.
WATCH: Thousands of Afghans forced to return to Afghanistan after a crackdown in neighboring Pakistan say they now face life in makeshift camps without proper sanitation or water.
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Afghan Returnees Describe Dire Conditions In Their Homeland
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, however, has said the TTP is an internal security issue for Pakistan that it cannot resolve.
The Afghan exodus from Pakistan continues at a steady pace. Taliban border officials say several hundred Afghan refugee families are still arriving daily.
Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have appealed to Islamabad to continue its protection of all vulnerable Afghans.
“Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis with several human rights challenges, particularly for women and girls,” a statement by the two UN organizations said on October 7.
“Such plans would have serious implications for all who have been forced to leave the country and may face serious protection risks upon return,” the statement added.