(Peshawar) Pakistan is preparing to launch a second wave of expulsions of Afghans next month, after that of last fall, in a context of growing tensions between the two countries, AFP learned from several Pakistani officials.
Between mid-September and January 13, more than 500,000 Afghans had to leave Pakistan, which had issued an ultimatum in November for the return of undocumented immigrants to their country, according to figures published in early 2024 by the Organization International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Pakistan had justified the measure by fears for the country’s security and the weight represented by the Afghans on its ailing economy, but analysts believed that it was intended to force the Taliban government to act in the face of the activity. deployed by armed groups on its border.
“The military authorities informed us that the second phase of the repatriation of illegal Afghan immigrants would begin after Eid,” a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, told AFP. Afghanistan.
Eid el-Fitr, which marks the breaking of the fast for the month of Ramadan, will be celebrated for several days in the second week of April.
A senior police officer based in the provincial capital of Peshawar, who also requested anonymity, confirmed to AFP that a second phase of the operation targeting “illegal Afghans” would begin after Eid.
“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have been ordered to identify the places where illegal Afghan immigrants are staying,” he said.
“However, the federal government has not yet given specific directives regarding the nature of this operation,” he said.
In the fall of 2023, Islamabad set an ultimatum on 1er November for the departure of 1.7 million undocumented Afghan refugees.
Millions of Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan in recent decades, fleeing conflicts.
Among them, some 600,000 Afghans had left their country due to the return to power in Kabul in August 2021 of the Taliban, who imposed an ultra-rigorous interpretation of Islamic law.
Since the return to power of the Taliban, border tensions between the two Muslim countries have escalated.
Pakistan claims that armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), carry out planned attacks from Afghan soil, via a very porous border.
The Afghan government has always denied harboring foreign armed groups using its soil to launch attacks against its neighbors.
On Monday, Pakistan carried out airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan that killed eight civilians and led to a response from Kabul with “heavy weapons” fire on border areas.
The airstrikes came two days after attackers killed seven soldiers in northwest Pakistan’s North Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan.