report in The News, Dec 09, 2023QUETTA: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi on Friday said there was no substance in former PTI chairman Imran Khan’s accusations with regard to illegal immigrants who returned to their countries voluntarily. “The accusations by the PTI former chairman in his tweet are baseless. About 0.5 million illegal immigrants have left the country voluntarily and none of them was forced out of the country,”…
Posts tagged as “illegal”
report in The News,November 23, 2023QUETTA: Balochistan Caretaker Minister for Information Jan Achakzai said on Wednesday that 10 lakh undocumented immigrants would be repatriated by the end of January 2024. Addressing a news conference at Quetta Press Club here on Wednesday, he said the second phase of repatriating undocumented immigrants had commenced, adding “Till now, more than 120,000 illegal immigrants have been repatriated.” He said about 2,000 immigrants without legal documents had been detained across…
AFP report, Nov 6, 2023KABUL: Poppy cultivation and opium production have plunged 95 per cent in Afghanistan since Taliban authorities banned the crop, according to a UN report published on Sunday.Since returning to power in 2021, Taliban authorities have vowed to end illegal drug production in Afghanistan and in April 2022 banned the cultivation of the poppy plant, from which opium and heroin are made. The report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and…
By Saleem Jadoon in Pakistan Today, Nov 6, 2023ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s decision to deport illegal migrants has caused significant strain in its relationship with Afghanistan, as the Taliban government and several of its leaders publicly criticize Islamabad for evicting thousands of Afghans. The move has put bilateral ties at stake, with the interim prime minister, defense minister, and interior minister of Afghanistan openly expressing their discontent with Pakistan’s actions. While Pakistan has consistently stated that its…
By Imtiaz Ali in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023KARACHI: The government machinery employed to identify illegal immigrants and facilitate their repatriation or deportation faced immense hardship in undertaking the process mainly due to a lack of verification devices and record of foreigners, sources said on Thursday. The sources said that the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) officials deputed at the transit centre, at Old Haji Camp, here did not have any record of illegal immigrants…
report in The Express Tribune, Nov 2, 2023The government on Wednesday began rounding up undocumented foreigners, most of them illegal Afghans refugees, in all parts of the country after a midnight deadline for them to leave the country expired. The removal of the people to temporary holding centres began a day earlier than previously announced. Moreover, the interior ministry said 140,322 people had already left voluntarily. Afghans made up the bulk of those to have…
By Iftikhar A. Khan in Dawn, October 27th, 2023ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan ruled out an extension in the deadline for the forced repatriation of undocumented immigrants, mostly Afghan nationals, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Thursday revealed foreign nationals residing in the country without identity documents would be kept at ‘holding centres’ before deportation to their respective countries. At a press conference held in the federal capital, the caretaker minister shared the details of a plan…
by Kamran Yousaf in The Express Tribune, Oct 26, 2023ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not show any flexibility in its decision to deport all foreigners living in the country illegally despite pressure being exerted by certain countries to review the move. “We are sticking to our decision. There will not be any flexibility. All foreigners living in the country illegally will have to adhere to the October 31 deadline,” a senior government official while requesting anonymity told…
Report in TOLOnews Online, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:49 PMPakistan’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…
Illegal immigrants
Edit in Business Recorder, Nov 7, 2023Human rights outfits and aid agencies who are up in arms about the government’s decision to expel all illegal immigrants need to remember two very important points. One, the order is limited to illegal residents only, who have been living in Pakistan in violation of both local and international law. That does not in any way mean that the process of their deportation should be disrespectful, of course, but…