Pakistan prepares deportation centres as deadline for Afghans looms

AFP :
The Pakistani government said Thursday it would open several “holding centres” for undocumented migrants as a deportation deadline looms for hundreds of thousands of Afghans.

Islamabad has given Afghans it says are living illegally in Pakistan until November 1 to leave voluntarily or face deportation-an order the Taliban government says amounts to harassment.

“These centres have been named as ‘holding centres’.

Illegal immigrants will be kept there,” Sarfraz Bugti, the caretaker interior minister, said at a press conference.

“They will be provided with medical facilities and food.

Children, women and elders will be treated with special respect.

But at the same time, after November 1st, we will not compromise on illegal immigrants,” Bugti said, without giving further details.

Feroz Jamal, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said three centres would be ready in the province, which borders Afghanistan, by the deadline.

The order comes as Pakistan grapples with a rise in attacks the government blames on militants operating from Afghanistan, a charge Kabul routinely denies.

There is also rising anti-Afghan sentiment as a prolonged economic hardship burdens the Pakistani state.

Afghans have poured into Pakistan by the millions over decades of conflict during the Soviet invasion, the following civil war and the US-led occupation.