Over 18,000 Afghans left Punjab voluntarily

LAHORE: At least 18,200 Afghan national residing in Punjab province, left to Afghanistan voluntarily up till now, The News has learnt.

The voluntary evacuation has been going on since the government gave an ultimatum to all unregistered foreign nationals to leave Pakistan by Oct 31, after which action would be taken against them as per law.

A high official at the Punjab Home Department on the condition of anonymity told The News that 1138 Afghan nationals residing illegally were repatriated forcefully. At least 277 Afghan national from Attock, 189 from Sialkot, 141 from Gujrat and 15 Afghan national from Lahore were repatriated. According to the official, the number of voluntary evacuation is less. Although repatriation is an ongoing process, the ratio is dropping with the passage of time.

The sources, told the News that a huge number of Afghan nationals are residing in Gujranwala, evacuation from Gujranwala was not encouraging. He further shared that more than 100,000 Afghan national are residing and working in Shah Almi Market. According to him, 150 Afghan nationals were living or working over there illegally and they could not be traced.

The News talked to some Afghan nationals randomly, they complained that they had paid some money to the police. A shoe maker from Lakshmi Chowk area said he was arrested by the police and asked for identification which he could not prove because he had no documents. According to the shoe maker, he had given twenty thousand rupees, after that he was freed. He was afraid that he could be arrested again anytime and he did not want to leave Pakistan because he is earning over here.

Another boy told the same story. When the News told the officer that it was the complaint that after taking bribes, the police let go the illegally Afghan nationals. He did not comment and said such rumors were heard by him.

Another official told The News that fewer Afghan nationals left Punjab as they are hiding. He said that if the Afghan nationals have the Afghan citizen cards, the Proof of Registration (PoR) cards and Afghan visas, they will not be repatriated and the police will not arrest them. He further said that voluntary evacuation would be encouraged.