KABUL (SW) – As the arrest of Afghan immigrants in Pakistan intensified in recent weeks, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad has said that in the past year, more than three thousand Afghan migrants have been arrested and imprisoned in the country.
Sardar Mohammad Shakib, head of the Afghan embassy in Pakistan, told Salam Watandar that in the past year, 2,600 Afghan prisoners have been released from the country’s prisons as a result of the efforts of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad. But even now, more than 800 Afghan migrants are in the prisons of this country. He adds: “There are more arrests in Karachi compared to other cities. Women, children and patients are also included among the detainees.”
The head of the Afghan embassy in Pakistan expresses hope that the process of arresting Afghan migrants in this country will end and that they will no longer be harassed by the Pakistani police, and that a specific mechanism will be established for their transfer to Afghanistan.
A number of Afghan migrants in Pakistan say that they are living in fear after the increase in arrests by the police of this country. Amir, who migrated to Pakistan two years ago, says that his two sons were detained by the Pakistani police. “Anyone who does not have documents will be caught and harassed by the police. Both of my sons, who had gone to work, have been detained for two weeks. I try very hard to free them, but I can’t because they don’t have documents.”
“We are facing many problems,” says Shogoofa, another Afghan immigrant in Pakistan. “Arrests continue. They arrest people and release them again in exchange for money. That’s why we can’t leave the house. We are like a prisoner because we are afraid of being arrested.”
The continued arrest of Afghan immigrants by the Pakistani police has also led to the reaction of the officials of the Islamic Emirate and the Afghan embassy in Pakistan.
Khairullah Khairkhah, acting minister of information and culture of the Islamic Emirate, in his meeting yesterday with Asif Ali Khan Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, referring to the detention of Afghan immigrants in Pakistan, said that any incident that negatively affects the relations between the two countries should be prevented. .
Likewise, Sardar Ahmad Shakib, head of the Afghan embassy in Pakistan, says: “We are in contact with the Pakistani authorities so that this process ends and people are not harassed because people’s disrespect has negative effects on the relations of both countries, and the Pakistani authorities promised to control this issue.”
Recently, Pakistani media reported that after the return of Islamic Emirate to power in Afghanistan, more than 600 thousand citizens of this country have migrated to Pakistan. At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also reported that currently, three million and 500 thousand Afghan refugees live in Pakistan, of which only one million and 300 thousand have legal residency documents.
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