Afghan officials asked Pakistan on Sunday to prepare a joint mechanism for the gradual repatriation of refugees, adding that forced deportation has no interest in any country.
The Interior Ministry, in a statement on March 7, had declared: “All illegal foreigners are advised and the owners of ACCs who leave the country voluntarily before March 31, 2025; since then, deportation will begin on April 1, 2025”.
Mufti Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said that bringing refugees back is an Afghan official policy, but should be under a joint mechanism with Pakistan so that refugees are gradually returned and with “honor.”
“But if Pakistan unilaterally sends refugees, we are completely prepared to receive them,” said the Taliban spokesman Hurriyat Radio.
“We have held meetings with Pakistani officials on the subject and we are still in contact with them,” he added. “Our demand is that they (Afghan refugees) should not be deported by force, since deportation is not only against international laws, but rather to Islamic values and an act against good and neighbors.
“His forced deportation is not of interest to Pakistan and Afghanistan either. We have always demanded that there should be a joint mechanism for the repatriation of Afghan refugees and should return in less numbers so that they can be accommodated with dignity.”
The spokesman added that the Afghan are being sent by force and that Iran is willing to prepare a joint mechanism with Afghanistan through an understanding.
Haqqani added that a commission was established to protect and help refugees and that they would be given land in different parts of the country, while qualified refugees would receive jobs.
“Those who want to invest, taxes will not be imposed for five years and taxes will not be imposed on what has brought the country,” Haqqani added.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials argue that Pakistan’s returnees are welcome in the camps in Torkham and receive assistance.
Siddiqullah Qureshi, head of the Nangarhar Provincial Information Department, told the Afghan state agency Bakhtar That a total of 325 refugees arrived through Torkham on Friday.
“The returnees include 249 members of 62 families and another 31 people were deported on April 13,” he said. “Repatriation through Torkham has recently intensified and the returnees are being provided with registration and other facilities.”
A high -ranking provincial delegation led by the vice governor of Nangarhar, Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa, traveled to the Torakham border to closely monitor the process of the second wave of Afghans returning from Pakistan and to improve coordination and measures to address their initial problems and needs, Bakhtar reported.
On the Pakistani side, a camp to facilitate the repatriation of the headlines of the Afghan citizenship card (ACC) is now functional. Landi Kotal camp staff is now clearing refugees for repatriation, Bakhtar aggregate.
The authorities in the Khyber district said Sunday that the cases of a total of 850 Afghans were prosecuted in Landi Kotal Camp and Torkham for repatriation. On Saturday, a total of 777 Afghan were deported through Torkham.
A senior official in the Khyber district said Dawn.com that since April 1, 11,272 Afghan have been repatriated.
Pakistan has not accepted the calls of Afghan Taliban leaders and began repatriation and deportation from November 1 under a previous announcement.
Pakistan houses 1.52 million registered Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, approximately 800,000 headlines of Afghan citizenship, along with others living in the country without official recognition, according to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) representative of Pakistan Philippa Candler.
