KARACHI: After the deadline for undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave the country expired on Wednesday, November 1 (today), the government stationed law enforcement officers at several holding centers across the nation.
To guarantee their deportation, authorities have launched a concerted national operation.
A sizable number of police officers have been stationed in holding camps in Karachi for people who have been living there illegally.
Foreign migrants are being temporarily housed at the former Haji camp as part of this endeavor. Concurrently, a massive effort is in progress to locate and deport people who have not registered for repatriation and those who are still living in the nation illegally without permission.
Sources claim that District East, Sohrab Goth, and surrounding regions of Karachi have the highest concentration of “aliens,” with an estimated 165,000 immigrants living there illegally.
Meanwhile, a sizable group of Afghan citizens who had been living abroad without authorization in various regions of the nation had gathered in Chaman and registered to return home.
These people are staying in camps designed to shelter families of Afghan refugees. After completing the registration process, about 5,000 Afghan refugees have arrived in the Chaman center thus far.
According to reports from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 51,044 illegal foreign residents have been located in different districts. Extensive official records demonstrate that over 24,000 of these people are adults and over 25,000 are minors.
At 22,752, Peshawar has the highest number of undocumented people, made up of 5,826 males, 5,800 women, and 11,000 children. Significant numbers, totaling 51,044, have also been recorded in other districts, such as Nowshera (7,185), Khyber (5,173), and Mansehra (2,700).
The effort to repatriate undocumented foreign nationals has already begun, and sources inside the Afghan Commissionerate affirm that 5,265 families—a total of 140,085 individuals—will be returning between October 1 and October 31.
Officials assert that the operation’s goal is to guarantee legal compliance while tackling the problem of illegal residency nationwide.
