KABUL (SW) – As the deadline by the Pakistani government to deport illegal immigrants from this country ends, thousands of Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan.
Officials said that in just one day, 1,888 families crossed through the border crossings of Torkham and Spinboldak and have returned to the country.
Abdul Rahman Rashid, the deputy minister, told Salam Watandar that they have established two temporary camps in Lalpur Nangarhar and Tathapul districts of Kandahar for the relocation of migrants who returned from Pakistan.
He adds: “1358 families, which is 7881 people, returned via Torkham, and 530 families, which is 3527 people, came via Spinboldek. Some of the immigrants who come from Pakistan go to their provinces and others who do not have a place in their provinces are kept in the camp for a temporary period. Nangarhar camp has a capacity of 500 families and Kandahar camp has a capacity of 1000 families.”
Officials says that they have provided the necessary facilities for the migrants in the established camps. However, a number of migrants who returned from Pakistan in the past days and moved to the camp created in Nangarhar, complain about the lack of necessary facilities in this camp.
Safiullah, who has been living in the camp with his family for three days, says: “Life here in the camp is not good, there is no water, food does not arrive on time, children are with us, 13 of us live in one place. I hope we will transfer from here.”
Mohammad Zaman, another returnee said: “We have many problems. The problems are food and water, nothing else. We lived and worked there, now that we have returned, we have nothing, I don’t know what to do?”
A number of other immigrants complain about the harassment by the Pakistani police and say that they were expelled from Pakistan in a bad condition and threatened by the police of this country.
Sharafuddin, who lived in the city of Quetta, Pakistan for 22 years and returned to the country on Monday via the Torkham border crossing, says: “We are not allowed to live in Pakistan. They told us twice that if you don’t get out, they will destroy our house and imprison us. We are four people in the family. In Pakistan, they took our money from us. I don’t know what to do now?”
Noor, another Afghan citizen who has lived in Karachi, Pakistan for 16 years, said: “We were oppressed there, we spent one night in the camp, the facilities in the camp were good. We ask the government and aid institutions to provide us with a permanent place to stay.”
Human Rights Watch has criticized the forced deportation of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan and said that Pakistan has expelled Afghan immigrants from this country by threatening and arresting them. .
Pakistan has announced that more than 200,000 Afghan immigrants had voluntarily left the country in less than a month.
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