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A Punjab government minister announced on Thursday that the government has also offered cash rewards to Pakistanis who provide information about Afghans living illegally in the province, which has a population of 130 million.
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Islamabad: The crackdown on illegal Afghan nationals continues in Pakistan. The Punjab government has intensified its crackdown against illegal Afghan residents. In November alone, more than 6,000 people have been deported to Afghanistan. A Punjab government minister announced on Thursday that the government has also offered cash rewards to Pakistanis who provide information about Afghans living illegally in the province, which has a population of 130 million.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari said in a statement, "The campaign against Afghans living illegally in Punjab is in full swing. This action is being carried out in an organized, legal, and effective manner across the province." Azma Bukhari said that the Punjab government has encouraged citizens to share information through a whistleblower mechanism, resulting in many providing accurate and actionable intelligence.
Bukhari said, "Cash rewards will be given to those who identify illegal Afghan nationals, and the identity of each informant will be kept strictly confidential." He stated that 6,220 illegal Afghan nationals were deported from Punjab to Afghanistan in November, and this campaign will continue effectively.
He said, "The process of repatriating illegal Afghan residents from Punjab is progressing successfully, and the government is strictly adhering to its zero-tolerance policy in this regard." Last month, the Punjab government deported approximately 22,000 Afghan nationals living illegally in the province. He stated that the third phase of the campaign to deport foreign (Afghan) nationals has begun.
Last month, the Punjab government denotified the last Afghan refugee camp in Kot Chandna, Mianwali, 325 kilometers from Lahore. However, four such camps remain in operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 in Balochistan. Before the start of the third phase, the Punjab government had repatriated approximately 43,000 Afghan nationals from April to September under Pakistan's Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Scheme (IFRP).
Security has been put on high alert to ensure the complete expulsion of all illegal residents. The Punjab government still has 46 functional detention centers in the province, including five in Lahore. These detention centers hold illegally held Afghan nationals until they are transported to the Torkham border to enter Afghanistan.
The United Nations refugee agency reported that more than 3.5 million Afghans live in Pakistan, including approximately 700,000 who arrived after the Taliban took over in 2021. The UN estimated that half of them were undocumented. The Shahbaz Sharif government explained its decision to deport Afghan nationals, stating that the large influx of refugees posed a threat to national security and strained public services, and therefore, they must be deported.
