20,132 Afghan migrants returned home from Oct 3-26

CHAMAN: A total of 20,132 undocumented Afghan migrants voluntarily returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan between October 3 to 26, ARY News reported quoting police.

Pakistan has set a deadline of November 01 for illegal residents and migrants to leave the country otherwise they would be deported.

Deputy Commissioner Chaman Raja Athar Abbas said Afghan migrants returning to their country are being provided with medical, food and other basic facilities.

Refugee Centre at Bab-e-Dosti Chaman is fully operational, he added.

Meanwhile, the Afghan nationals returning to Kabul expressed their happiness and gratitude to the government of Pakistan and its people for hosting them for years.

On Thursday, the first chartered flight departed from Islamabad International Airport to the United Kingdom (UK) to relocate about 200 Afghan refugees.

Around 3,000 Afghans, many of whom worked for the British army, were evacuated to be provided residence in the UK following the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, when announcing the deadline in early October, said an estimated 1.7 million Afghans are among those facing forcible eviction.

Bugti further said that a task force had been constituted which will take action against illegal immigrants. “Pakistan is the only country permitting entry of people even without a passport,” the minister decried.