Islamabad has asked 1.7 million Afghans it says are living in the country illegally to leave by November 1
Government has set up holding centers to keep illegal immigrants before sending them to their countries
TORKHAM: Maroza Bibi and her children are among hundreds of Afghans waiting at the Pakistani border, hurriedly leaving a country she has called home for decades in fear of arrest.
Islamabad has issued an order to 1.7 million Afghans it says are living in the country illegally to leave by November 1, or be deported.
A series of holding centers are being established across the country in preparation for the Wednesday deadline in what rights groups and lawyers say is an unprecedented crackdown.
“I am taking a lot of good memories. I was expecting Pakistan to give us nationality, but that did not happen, compelling us to go back almost empty-handed,” Bibi, 52, told AFP at the Torkham crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.
She was around 10 years old when her family fled the Soviet war in Afghanistan, settling in Kashmir where she raised a family and where her husband is buried.
Millions of Afghans have crossed the border during decades of conflict, making Pakistan the host of one of the world’s largest refugee populations.
But relations have steadily soured between the two countries since the Taliban government seized power in August 2021 and imposed their austere version of Islamic law.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are estimated to have crossed the...
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