Pakistan has ordered 1.7 million Afghans to leave the country by November or face deportation

About 1.3 million Afghans are registered as refugees in Pakistan, and another 880,000 have legal status to remain Photo: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP

Pakistan has ordered some 1.7 million Afghans living in the country illegally to leave the country by the end of the month or face deportation.

The order, announced by the country's interior minister on Tuesday, appeared on as Pakistan struggles with a rise in attacks that its government blames on militants operating out of Afghanistan — a charge that Kabul generally denies.

About 1.3 million Afghans are registered refugees in Pakistan, and another 880,000 have legal status to remain, according to the latest United Nations data. figures.

But Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan's acting interior minister, said another 1.7 million Afghans are in Pakistan illegally.

All will have to, according to state news agency APP return home in the coming months.

“Illegal immigrants and illegal foreign nationals living in Pakistan have been given a deadline of November. 1,” Mr. Bugti told reporters in Islamabad.

“If they don’t go… then all law enforcement agencies in the provinces or the federal government will be involved in deporting them.”

However APP went further, citing government sources who said the administration wanted all Afghans to leave.

“In the first stage — illegal residents, in the second stage — persons with Afghan citizenship, and in the third — those who have documents confirming a residence permit will be expelled,” the message says.

Embassy Afghanistan on Tuesday said it had detained more than 1,000 Afghans in the past two weeks, despite half of them having a legal right to be in Pakistan.

Pakistan has taken similar actions against Afghans in the past. Photo: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP

“Despite repeated promises by the Pakistani authorities, arrests and harassment of Afghan refugees by police in Pakistan continue,” it said.

Mr. Bugti also said that from November 1, Pakistan will allow entry only to Afghans with valid passports and visas.

For many years, Afghans entering Pakistan through the land border were allowed to use their national identity. cards as a travel document.

In Afghanistan, there is a huge waiting list for citizens wanting to obtain passports, and obtaining a Pakistani visa can take months.

Mr Bugti also warned of tighter restrictions on property and businesses owned by Afghans in Pakistan.

“For this purpose, an operational group has been created at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. All the property and businesses of those living here illegally do not fall into our tax net,” he said.

“Our intelligence agencies will track them down and their businesses will be confiscated by the government.”

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated since the return of the Taliban, leading to a surge in militant attacks along the Pakistani border.

“There have been 24 suicide attacks since January, 14 of them by Afghan civilians.” , Mr. Bugti told reporters.

Pakistan has taken similar actions against Afghans in the past and threatened to deport them all, but the campaigns failed after a few months or after negotiations between the respective capitals.