KABUL (SW) – Officials in the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs, in an interview with Salam Watandar, said that during last month, nearly 500 Afghan refugees who did not have legal documents were arrested by the police in various cities of Pakistan.
Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs, said that as a result of the efforts of this ministry, 120 refugees have been released from prison.
He added: “The number of detainees reaches approximately 500 people. In order to free them and to stop the arrests, the Ministry of Refugees has sent legal teams in coordination with Sharp’s office in the states of Sindh and Karachi, and as a result of the efforts, 120 Afghan refugees have been released again.”
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees emphasized that talks are ongoing with the Pakistani side to stop the process of arrests.
Meanwhile, Afghan refugees in a number of Pakistani cities say that they have not left their homes for days for fear of being arrested.
Nouria Moradi, an Afghan refugee in the city of Karachi, Pakistan, said that the refugees don’t even dare to take their patients to the hospital. She added: “They have detained 300 refugees, including children and women, in the city of Karachi for the past few days. For almost four days, we cannot go anywhere for fear of being arrested, we cannot even take our patients to the hospital. The living conditions here are getting worse day by day.”
On the other hand, a number of those who themselves or their relatives were arrested in these days and nights, say that the Pakistani police released them in exchange for money, and those who do not have money, still remain in prison.
Gul Mohammad, an Afghan immigrant in Islamabad, told Salam Watandar: “My visa expired, they took me on Thursday last week, I didn’t have any documents with me, another person came for me and gave them 16,000 rupees as a guarantee. We find it difficult to find a single rupee, so I borrowed this from them to get freed.”
Nasir, an Afghan immigrant in the city of Karachi, also told Salam Watandar: “Arrests have increased and they go from house to house. Those whose visas have expired, if they pay, it will not be taken into account otherwise, they will take them and imprison them. They had arrested our neighbors and took eight thousand rupees from each of them and set them free.”
It should be mentioned that after the recent statements of the interim interior minister of Pakistan, the detention of refugees in this country has intensified. Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan’s Interim Interior Minister, said in a press conference last month that serious measures have been taken against illegal immigrants in different cities of this country and they will be returned to their country.
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