More than 165,000 Afghans leave Pakistan in a month: officials

TORKHAM: More than 165,000 undocumented Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad issued an ultimatum to 1.7 million people a month ago to leave or face deportation, officials said Thursday.

Just over 129,000 have fled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the provincial home department said, while a total of 38,100 have crossed through Chaman in Balochistan, border officials there told AFP.

The majority rushed to the border in the past several days as the November 1 deadline approached and police began to open up dozens of holding centres to detain arrested Afghans.

Officials at the country’s busiest border point at Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province worked into the early hours of Thursday morning to clear a queue of 28,000 people that stretched for seven kilometres.

“Illegal Afghans arrived at Torkham in heavy numbers because of the deadline… People can still return voluntarily but today only 1,000 are present at the border,” Abdul Nasir Khan, deputy commissioner of the border district, told AFP.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti last Thursday said that the expulsion plan for illegal foreign immigrants has been finalized.

Holding centres have been setup in all provinces to keep illegal foreign nationals.

Bugti said that the illegal foreign immigrants will not be kept in jails, but temporary camps have been established as holding centres for them.