ISLAMABAD: While the deadline set by the government for all illegal aliens living in Pakistan to leave expires tonight, only 10pc of the iver one million Afghans have voluntarily returned to their country by October 30.
Caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday said that there are at least 1.1 million illegal Afghan nationals living in Pakistan. He said the deadline was not just for the illegal Afghans but for all those aliens who have been living in the country without any documents.
Earlier, interior minister Sarfraz Bugti said that the government has put in place a strategy to evict all aliens living in Pakistan without legal authority when the deadline for them to go back to their countries expires on November 1.
Sources told News Diplomacy that local administrations, police and jail officials had been authorized to detain any illegal foreigners under section 3 of the Foreigners Act 1946.
Afghan and other nationals already held in jails in major crimes would not be deported but those held in minor cases would be release and sent back to their country.
The sources said that all Afghan illegal migrants arrested from Punjab will be shifted to a centre in Rawalpindi while those picked form different parts of KP would be taken to centres to be set up at Nowshera and Chamkani.
Similarly, illegal Afghans detained form Balochistan would be shifted to Pishin and Qila Abdullah before their deportation to their country.
According to the sources, Afghan illegal immigrants to be picked form Sindh would be kept at two centres in Karachi before being shifted to their country.
However, official sources expressed apprehensions about the government capacity to manage the illegal Afghans at any holding centers or jails due to lack of facilities.
They said most of the illegal foreigners had not left the country yet and tracing and detaining them would be a very difficult task for the police and other law enforcement agencies.
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