Home TRENDING THE UNITED STATES URGES AFGHANISTAN’S NEIGHBORS, NOTABLY PAKISTAN, TO TAKE IN DISPLACED...

THE UNITED STATES URGES AFGHANISTAN’S NEIGHBORS, NOTABLY PAKISTAN, TO TAKE IN DISPLACED AFGHANS.

THE UNITED STATES URGES AFGHANISTAN'S NEIGHBORS, NOTABLY PAKISTAN, TO TAKE IN DISPLACED AFGHANS.

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WASHINGTON:
The US State Department said on Thursday that the US “strongly” encouraged Afghanistan’s neighbors, especially Pakistan, to allow entrance for Afghans seeking protection and urged them to respect duties in the treatment of refugees.

Afghan refugees wait at the UNHCR registration centre in Peshawar on June 23, 2016. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

All illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans, must leave Pakistan by November 1. Otherwise, they would be forcibly removed from the nation.

Islamabad claims that Afghan nationals are responsible for more than a dozen suicide attacks in Pakistan this year, and that 1.73 million Afghans living in Pakistan lack proper documentation.

Since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979, the vast majority of Afghan refugees have found shelter in Pakistan. Islamabad claims that 4. 4 million Afghan refugees currently reside in Pakistan.

Approximately 20,000 Afghans, or more, are currently in Pakistan, where they are waiting for their applications for US Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) or resettlement in the United States to be processed.

A spokesperson for the US State Department told reporters on Thursday, “We strongly encourage Afghanistan’s neighbors, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations… to provide humanitarian assistance.”

The departure of illegal Afghans from Karachi has begun.

According to Pakistan, deportations will be phased in and would start with those who have criminal records.

It has been deemed “unacceptable” by the Taliban government in Kabul that Pakistan is expelling Afghan refugees.

Over the past few of years, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have worsened due to allegations that militants battling the Pakistani state are operating from within Afghan territory. The Taliban asserts otherwise.

Resettlement groups and former high-ranking US officials have urged Pakistan to prevent thousands of Afghans who have applied for US visas from being deported to Afghanistan.

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