The district administration arrested 47 illegal Afghan nationals in Charsadda during a crackdown, it was reported on Monday.
Operations against illegal Afghans were conducted in Charsadda, Shab-e-Qadr and the tehsil of Tenji.
All these Afghan nationals fail to produce legal documents regarding their stay in Pakistan. All these Afghan nationals will be sent to Holding Point, and then they will be deported to Afghanistan via Torkham.
The federal government and the Punjab government have deported some 2.59 million illegally staying Afghan residents back to Afghanistan since 2023.
It is necessary to mention here that the Punjab home department’s foreign national security cell is continuing with the eviction of the illegally staying Afghans and currently has some 53 such Afghans in its 36 functional holding centres across the province.
The Punjab government alone has detained some 138,342 Afghans in its holding centres, completed their documents and deported them to Afghanistan.
A home department spokesman has said the federal government’s policy clearly explained that anyone not having a valid visa could not stay in the country and needed to be deported.
The spokesman claimed that the home department had completed its survey and examination in markets as well as residential areas. The illegally staying Afghans were being arrested and detained at holding centres. At holding centres, the spokesman said, the arrested Afghans were being provided with shelter, registration, and arrangements for deportation through the Torkham border.
The spokesman stressed that people of Punjab should report about the illegally staying Afghans at the emergency call 15 and added that their identity would not be disclosed to anyone.
