LAHORE: The Punjab government has launched the third phase of deporting illegal Afghan residents as it identified some 123 more such Afghans and brought them to holding centres for their deportation.

The Punjab government claims to have already repatriated some 42,913 Afghan nationals since April 1, 2025, as part of Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigner Repatriation Plan (IFRP).

The government is identifying the Afghan nationals, who have no legal documents to be in Pakistan or have overstayed for more than a year.

The government is still having 46 functional holding centres in the province, including five in Lahore, and holds illegally staying Afghan nationals until they are transported to the Torkham Border for crossing over to Afghanistan.

Punjab IGP Dr Usman Anwar says the police are on high alert across the province and ensuring picking up of illegally residing Afghan nationals for their repatriation as per international laws. He says the government is making its utmost effort to ensure human dignity and rights in the process of Afghans’ repatriation.

Dr Anwar says the Punjab Police has so far deported some 21,805 illegally staying Afghans and other foreigners.

It may be mentioned that the federal government had last month denotified the last Afghan Refugee Camp in Mianwali as well as four such camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 camps in Balochistan.

Since the bulk of Afghan nationals, lacking valid documents, has been repatriated, Punjab Home Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi said now there was no operational Afghan Refugee Camp in the province after the closure of Mianwali’s “Kot Chandna” camp.

He said the Afghans, who came across the law enforcement agencies, were being taken to the holding centres at the district level where their boarding, lodging and food was taken care of by the Punjab government through respective deputy commissioners. Then, he said, they were transported to the Torkham Border at the expense of the Punjab government.

“All Afghans residing in Pakistan shall have to leave except those having valid visas,” he asserted.

The UN’s refugee agency had reported that more than 3.5 million Afghans had been living in Pakistan, including around 700,000 people who came after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The UN estimated that half of them were undocumented.

Though Pakistan had taken care of Afghans during the past decades of war, the government is now compelled to say that the high number of refugees is eventually posing risks to national security and causing pressure on public services.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025