Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti says they are encouraging the “voluntary return” of illegal aliens till the Nov. 1 deadline before launching an operation to expel them.
Earlier this month, the caretaker government of Pakistan directed all foreign migrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country, Geo News reported.
The federal minister also said 15,000 to 20,000 illegal foreigners left Pakistan voluntarily between Thursday and Friday.
About the total number of foreigners in the country, Bugti said there were more than three million such individuals residing in Pakistan, including illegal aliens, those with proof of registration (PoR) and refugees.
“All provincial governments will be part of the operation […] committees have been formed at divisional, district levels,” the minister said.
“Geo-mapping has been completed [to locate illegal foreigners]. The government will target aliens wherever they are,” he vowed.
The expulsion of aliens, he added, would be carried out in phases, with illegal foreigners — people with no travel documents and those who breached Nadra’s records to present themselves as Pakistani citizens — deported in the first phase.
Afghan nationality card holders, people possessing POR cards, and refugees registered with UNHCR will be expelled in the second phase. “Everyone [illegal foreigners] will have to go back.”
Commenting on the issue being given an ethnic angle, Bugti said: “This is not limited to Afghan citizens […] We mention Afghanistan as unfortunately, most illegal foreigners are from there.”
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