KABUL (SW) – Following the reactions to the forced deportation of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan, Amnesty International has recently issued a statement saying that Pakistan is “politically using” the deportation of Afghan immigrants and this process must be stopped “immediately“.
Amnesty International, in part of its statement, criticized the creation of detention centers for Afghan refugees by Pakistan and said that in some of these centers, the right to have a lawyer and contact with family members was taken away from the migrants.
At the same time, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad has said that it does not have access to the camps where migrants are kept for deportation to Afghanistan.
Sardar Ahmad Shakib, head of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, says: “There are two types of camps; a camp where immigrants are held for biometrics, their documents are checked, we visited these camps, it has some facilities compared to the past because we said that these problems must be solved, but in the camps where immigrants are kept, we do not have access to it.”
After the interim government of Pakistan announced that it will deport illegal immigrants including 1.7 millio illegal immigrants from the country after November 1, a number of international organizations and countries demanded a review of this decision by the Pakistani government.
However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the government of the Islamic Emirate, optimistic about the situation, says that the return of Afghan immigrants to the country can put an end to their political use against the Islamic Emirate.
He adds: “It is a good opportunity for immigrants to come back because they face problems every day. If it is made easier for them today, problems will arise for them in the following days and the existence of immigrants will be used as a means of pressure. It is better for all Afghans to return to their homes.”
According to the statistics of the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, after Pakistan’s decision to deport Afghan refugees from this country became public, 250 thousand people have voluntarily and forcibly returned to Afghanistan from Chaman-Spinboldak and Torkham crossings.
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