NEW YORK: The Human Rights Watch has called upon the Pakistan government to immediately order local authorities to stop pressuring registered refugees to return to Afghanistan.

The New York-based watchdog group said in a statement that the Pakistan government had an obligation to protect all Afghans in the country, including those not registered as refugees, from harassment and other abuses.

The HRW said a recent increase in Afghans repatriating from Pakistan appeared related to coercive pressure from local governments on Afghans to return to their country since the Dec 16, 2014, attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar. The attack left at least 148 dead — most of them children.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2015

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