Behind the Afghan refugee crisis in Pakistan

Expelling the refugees will only exacerbate the Afghan-Pakistan relationship that is already in tatters.

Pakistan’s Caretaker Minister for Interior, Senator Sarfraz Bugti, announced the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan on October 3, giving a month to the Afghan refugees/foreigners whose visa has expired to move back to Afghanistan by October 30. If they failed, they would be deported or imprisoned. Though the Taliban government had asked for an extension till November 1 for undocumented Afghans to leave Pakistan, no such extension was granted.