KABUL: The High Commission for Refugee Affairs of the Islamic Emirate has reported that around 20,000 Afghan migrants were forcibly deported from Iran and Pakistan in a single day.
Mawlavi Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, said this morning that these migrants returned to Afghanistan as families, through the Islam Qala and Silk Road crossings in Herat and Nimroz provinces from Iran, and Spin Boldak and Torkham crossings in Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces from Pakistan.
The report indicates that 740 families, including 7,992 individuals, were deported through the Islam Qala crossing, while 121 families, totaling 529 individuals, returned via the Silk Road crossing in Nimroz, as well as 188 families, including 1,088 members, returned through the Spin Boldak crossing in Kandahar, and 1,632 families, comprising 9,687 individuals, entered Afghanistan via the Torkham crossing from Pakistan.
Returning migrants are being assisted and addressed by the working committees of the High Commission for Refugee Affairs, and this process continues daily.
This report comes in the wake of recent media coverage in Pakistan regarding a new directive from the country’s Interior Ministry, ordering the arrest and forced deportation of Afghan migrants without valid visas.