Thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing Pakistan as deportation deadline looms
People head to the border before the expiration of a deadline for ‘illegal’ migrants to leave or face deportation.
Afghan people gather to board buses as they prepare to return home, after Pakistan gave last warning to undocumented migrants to leave, at a bus stop in Karachi, Pakistan October 29, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Afghan people gather to board buses as they prepare to return home, at a bus stop in Karachi
Islamabad, Pakistan – Thousands of Afghan refugees and migrants in Pakistan are heading to the border to return home a day before a government-imposed deadline to leave the country expires.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s interim interior minister, Sarfaraz Bugti, issued an October 31 deadline for all “illegal” refugees and migrants to leave, citing security concerns.
The government says more than four million foreigners live in Pakistan, a vast majority of them Afghan nationals who sought refuge over the last four decades after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980