Report in TOLOnews Online, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:49 PM
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani has once again stressed that the new policy for refugees applies to “all illegal
people” not only Afghan refugees.
Speaking at a press conference, Jilani said: “this is certainly not an Afghanistan-specific decision that the government has
taken, this decision applies to all illegal people residing in Pakistan and I think this is a firm decision that has been made
by Pakistan, all those people who are legally residing in Pakistan, they will not be disturbed, all those people who are
holding the registration cards they can continue to live in Pakistan whether they belong to Afghanistan or other countries.”
The consul of the Islamic Emirate in Karachi, Abdul Jabar Takhari, said that the Pakistani military has ramped up mistreatment
of Afghan refugees in the last month.
Takhari said that at least 500 Afghans who were detained despite having legal documents were released recently.
“Police have been detaining them and asking them for bribes. When they [Afghan refugees] don’t pay them [Pakistani police]
money, they are being detained,” Takhari said.
A refugee’s rights analyst, Mohammad Khan Talibi, said the mistreatment of Afghan refugees by Pakistani police is a violation
of international law.
“If the refugees are not treated based on international laws, this issue will affect other areas including political and
economic relations,” he said.
According to Takhari, 120,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan within the last year.
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-185571
