The United States has called on Pakistan to permit Afghans in search of safety to enter its territory.
The U.S. State Department stated on Thursday that it strongly encourages Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, including Pakistan, to allow entry to Afghans in need of international protection and to collaborate with international humanitarian organizations in delivering humanitarian aid.
A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department conveyed this message to reporters on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
Pakistan has set a deadline of November 1 for all undocumented immigrants, which includes hundreds of thousands of Afghans, to leave the country or face forced removal.
Pakistan has stated that the deportation process will be systematic and executed in phases, starting with individuals with criminal records.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan has declared Pakistan’s actions to expel illegal Afghan migrants as “unacceptable.”
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have soured over the past few years, mainly due to allegations that militants fighting against the Pakistani state operate from Afghan territory, a claim denied by the Taliban.
A coalition of former high-ranking U.S. Authorities and resettlement groups have urged Pakistan to grant special U.S. permission for thousands of Afghan applicants. visas or refugee resettlement in the United States from deportation to Afghanistan.
There are 1.73 million undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan.
Islamabad claims that this year, nearly a dozen suicide bombs were carried out by Afghan nationals.
Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979, with an estimated total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees.
Over 20,000 or more Afghans who fled the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 are in Pakistan, waiting for the processing of their applications for U.S. Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) or resettlement in the United States as refugees.
