Islamabad [Pakistan], October 8 : The Pakistan government on Friday doubled down on its policy to evict all illegal immigrants, including around 1.7 million Afghan refugees, from the country. The government said the decision was in line with international practices, Dawn reported.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.
As Pakistan's law enforcement agencies have continued their crackdown on people they call 'illegal aliens', a sizeable number of families have been crossing the border into Afghanistan over the past week.
Pakistan caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani: "No country allows illegal people to live in their country whether it is Europe, whether it is countries in Asia, in our neighbourhood."
Jilani made the remarks during an interview with Hong Kong's Phoenix TV on the sidelines of a forum in Tibet.
"So, accordingly this is in line with the international practice that we have taken this decision."
Pakistan's decision to ask illegal immigrants to leave the country by October 31 or face forcible expulsion has drawn criticism from within and without, with organisations such as UNHCR and Amnesty International calling on the government to rethink its plans. The Taliban government in Kabul has also expressed its reservations over the move, as per Dawn.
Jilani during the interview said: "Whenever there was any problem, people would immigrate to Pakistan, take refuge in Pakistan."
"But now I think it has been more than 40 years, so the government of Pakistan has taken a decision," he said, noting that the situation in Afghanistan had stabilised.
The caretaker foreign minister said Pakistan had been discussing the migrant issue with Afghanistan "for a very long time" and called on international humanitarian agencies to help with the process.
Meanwhile, caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi while speaking to reporters on Friday evening, called on all foreign nationals illegally residing in Punjab to depart voluntarily, saying that provincial authorities had collected initial data on foreign residents.
He was stern in his warning, saying that any foreigner found staying unlawfully in the province would not be permitted to remain, and stressed that illegal immigrants should leave Punjab of their own accord. In case they didn't, he cautioned, a comprehensive crackdown would ensue, as per Dawn.
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