Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a statement said that more than 200 Afghan journalists are threatened with deportation from Pakistan.
The expulsion of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan continues to spark reactions in the country and abroad.
Former president Hamid Karzai, and former Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, asked the Pakistani government to stop the forced deportation of Afghan immigrants.
“Once again I ask Pakistan to adopt a civilized and dignified approach towards Afghanistan,” Karzai said on X.
“I ask the neighboring countries to continue hosting the asylum seekers within the framework of international laws until they are willing to leave the country voluntarily, and to avoid harassing migrants and forcibly expelling them, which is considered a violation of international laws,” Abdullah said on X.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch in reaction to the deportation of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan on X said that “women and girls are especially at risk if they are forced to return to Afghanistan.”
HRW said that “countries that promised to provide at-risk Afghans with resettlement abroad should press Pakistan to end its abuses and live up to their own promises to resettle Afghan refugees.”
In response to a question asked by Naseer Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s representative in Geneva, regarding the situation of the Afghan refugees being deported by Pakistan, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the UN has been working since the “third of October” to mitigate the consequences.
“This is of course worrying — we have shared … with all countries after August 2021 that nobody, no Afghan should be sent back to Afghanistan in this situation that is so fragile. So, we have invoked that advice with the Pakistani government,” Grandi said.
In the meantime, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a statement said that more than 200 Afghan journalists are threatened with deportation from Pakistan.
“Sending these journalists back to Afghanistan would put their lives in danger, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF), urging the Pakistani authorities to let them stay in Pakistan and to guarantee their safety there,” the statement reads.
“Unfortunately, visas of most of these journalists have been rejected, which can create a big concern in the media community of Afghanistan, especially for those journalists who are living in exile in Pakistan,” said Hashmat Wejdani, a freelance journalist.
“Afghan immigrants are still being arrested and harassed by the Pakistani police, and in Punjab those Afghans who have ACC cards are also being detained,” said Haji Nazar, an Afghan immigrant in Pakistan.
Earlier, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR) announced the return of more than 200,000 refugees from Pakistan to the country and added that the ministry’s teams have been assigned to register the returnees at the crossings.
Source : Tolo News
