Pakistan says 1.45 million Afghan refugees can stay for another year

Afghan refugees with proper documentation will be able to remain in Pakistan until June 30, 2025

A worker from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), along with police officers, speaks to an Afghan citizen while checking identity cards, during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, November 21, 2023. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan announced on July 10 that it is extending the stay of 1.45 million Afghan refugees who legally reside in the country, a day after a visit by the U.N. refugee agency.

Afghan refugees with proper documentation will be able to remain in Pakistan until June 30, 2025, according to a statement issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office. On Tuesday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged Pakistani authorities to extend the validity of their registration cards — critical identity documents.

The previous stay extension issued by Pakstna's government was up on June 30, causing wide uncertainty and fear they may get repatriated.

The decision came following a widely criticised anti-migrant crackdown that started last year targeting anyone without valid documentation regardless of nationality, according to Pakistani authorities, forcing an estimated 6,00,000 Afghans to return home. However, the clampdown has seemingly been put on hold, without authorities offering an explanation.

After wrapping up his three-day visit in which he met Afghan refugees and Pakistani officials, Mr. Grandi issued a statement, expressing his appreciation that the repatriation of undocumented persons has been suspended.

There was no confirmation from Pakistan that the crackdown has in fact been halted.

U.N. agencies have decried the forced expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan, saying it could lead to severe human rights violations — including the separation of families and deportation of minors. Although Pakistan had been routinely deporting Afghans who came here without valid documents in recent years, the ongoing crackdown is unprecedented in scale

Pakistan has long hosted an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country. More than half a million others escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, with thousands waiting for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere.

The undocumented Afghans are separate from refugees who are registered with the authorities and the UNHCR, though the crackdown has raised concerns among refugee communities as well.