EDITORIAL: Islamabad has ruled out any extension in the October 31 deadline for undocumented immigrants — almost all of them Afghans — to leave with Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti announcing at a news conference that all foreign nationals illegally residing in Pakistan would be kept in ‘holding centres’ before deportation to their respective countries.
That may sound unseemly, but many illegally entering this country during the recent years have been linked to terrorism. Hence the Army Chief’s assertion at a recent event, “the safety and security of each Pakistani is of paramount importance which cannot be allowed to be compromised at any cost.”
Whilst a large number of undocumented Afghans were being rounded up all across the country, thousands of political activists, traders and tribesmen protested in Balochistan’s border town of Chaman against the new rule of allowing in only those with passports and valid visas, demanding restoration of the old border crossing system for families living on either side of the Pak-Afghan border.
On Thursday, Quetta Corps Commander Lt-Gen Asif Ghafoor accompanied by senior civilian officials attended a jirga with tribal elders, traders, and representatives of daily wage earners, and told them that as per previous regulations, people will still be allowed to cross the borders on the basis of national identity cards.
There seems to be some confusion, however, since he also assured the jirga that he would discuss the situation with the government. In the meantime, international community, too, has been expressing concern over deportations.
Yet the countries that had pledged to give refuge to Afghans who worked for them during the war left those people in a limbo for over two years. It is only now that Britain has started to bring some 3,000 or so Afghans to that country.
Those who assisted other Western coalition troops are still awaiting their turn. In a rather belated move, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has offered to support Pakistan in developing a mechanism to manage and register people in need of international protection.
That offer should be given sympathetic consideration in view of the fact that girls and women in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are barred from acquiring education. And all types of cultural activities, especially music, have been banned.
Most of the singers and musicians who came following Taliban’s return to power are reported to have obtained “token numbers” from the UNHCR. Letting them stay on should not be a problem. Severest retribution awaits those who opposed the Taliban.
They rightly fear that sending them back amounts to pronouncement of a death sentence. A way needs to be found to distinguish between those who need protection and those who don’t.
That may not be easy but doable if the international community voicing disapproval of repatriation of undocumented Afghans is ready to play a role in it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023