The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has cautioned against the deportation and harassment of the Afghan refugees living legally in Pakistan.
In an interview, a spokesman for the provincial government warned the expulsion of Afghans with residency documents could affect relations between the neighbours.
Speaking to a private TV channel, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif claimed all undocumented Afghan migrants in KP had already been deported. At the moment, he said, no action was ongoing against legal Afghans.
The refugees still living in the province possessed Afghan Citizen Cards. Their stay, he insisted, was in line with Pakistani law and resolutions by bodies like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The official explained: “The federal government has only tasked us to track how many legal Afghans are in KP. Our mapping has shown that 359,000 (Afghans) live in the province.”
If asked to expel legal Afghans, the KP government would outline its stance on the issue, he added. “We cannot harass or target Afghans living here legally.”
Any action against legal Afghans, the spokesman reiterated, would “foment hatred, misunderstanding and mistrust between us and Afghanistan”.
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