Human Rights Watch: Pakistan should cancel the deportation of Afghan refugees

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a statement on Thursday asking the United Nations and international donors to put pressure on Pakistan to support Afghan refugees and end their mistreatment.

 

Human Rights Watch adds that the implementation of the deportation program puts these migrants "at grave risk of being returned to persecution and other ill-treatment."

 

Pakistan has warned the migrants living illegally in the country, including 1.7 million Afghans, to return to their country by October 31, otherwise they will be arrested and deported.

 

On the other hand, the United Nations has warned that this action could lead to "severe" violations of human rights.

 

The Ministry of Interior of Pakistan announced on October 3rd that those Afghan immigrants who do not have a legal document to stay in Pakistan and are considered illegal immigrants by the government of this country, have 28 days to leave the country, otherwise the Pakistani police He will expel them by force.

 

This order of the Ministry of Interior of Pakistan increased the violence of the police against the Afghan immigrants and even the police in Sindh province of Pakistan started arresting and detaining Afghan immigrants before the deadline.

 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says in its latest statistical report that until the beginning of October 2023, about 3.7 million Afghan refugees have stayed in Pakistan. Of these, about 700,000 people went to this country after the Islamic Emirate took over Afghanistan. Many of those who went to Pakistan after August 2021 are waiting for resettlement in countries such as America, Canada, Germany, Australia and several other European countries.

 

While these countries have resettled about 200 thousand Afghan citizens based on this program, thousands of others are in limbo waiting to be transferred to these countries.

 

According to the report of the High Commissioner for Refugees, women and girls face more obstacles to transfer to third countries, and these countries have prioritized most Afghan men, because they cooperated with them in the military activities of these countries in Afghanistan.

 

Human Rights Watch also calls on the United Nations and other aid organizations in the field of migration to put pressure on Pakistan to prevent this country from deporting nearly 1.7 million Afghan migrants.

 

According to Human Rights Watch, collective and forced deportation may be considered a violation of Pakistan's obligations as a party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and a violation of the principle of customary international law prohibiting forced return.

 

Pakistan has signed the United Nations Convention in which it has committed to prevent the forced return of people who have sought refuge in another country for fear of arrest, torture and various forms of persecution, and their return could endanger their lives and their families.

 

Pakistan deported thousands of Afghan migrants in 2016. At the time, Pakistan claimed that the Afghans left the country voluntarily, but Human Rights Watch documented hundreds of cases of police abuse and violence against Afghan migrants, including beatings, arrests, and confiscation of residency documents.

 

"Countries that have promised to resettle at-risk Afghans abroad must keep their promises," says Patricia Gassman. "Germany and many countries of the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries have fallen far short of the number of Afghans they promised to resettle."

 

Many international organizations and some countries of the world have asked Pakistan to reconsider the mass deportation of Afghan immigrants and cancel this order, because the situation in Afghanistan is not ready to accept this amount of immigrants and the country is in a state of absolute poverty. However, so far, there is no clear prospect to change Pakistan's decision in this regard.