ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to start the process of deporting over 1.4 million, Afghan Proof of Registration (PoR) card holders from September 1.
This was revealed the interior ministry officials, adding that Pakistan Govrenment gave a fresh call for Afghan nationals to leave the country.
Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades, fleeing successive wars, as well as hundreds of thousands who arrived after the return of the Taliban government in 2021.
A deportation drive first launched in 2023 was renewed in April when Pakistan’s government rescinded hundreds of thousands of residence permits for Afghans, threatening to arrest anyone who did not leave.
Islamabad this year said it wanted 3 million Afghans to leave the country, including 1.4 million people with PoR cards and some 800,000 with Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC).
“Afghan nationals holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards shall be repatriated to Afghanistan as part of the ongoing implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP),” the interior ministry said in a notification issued.
“It has been decided that the voluntary return of PoR card holders shall commence forthwith, while the formal repatriation and deportation process will take effect from 1st September 2025.”
More than a million Afghans have left Pakistan since the expulsion drive first began in 2023, according to data from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Pakistan previously said those with PoR cards could stay until June 30, while the government has deported thousands of ACC holders.
“The repatriation of illegal foreign nationals, including Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders, will continue as per the earlier decision under the IFRP,” the interior ministry added.
In 2023, Islamabad said many of these Afghan refugees were found involved in militancy and crimes. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to control militancy in the border regions.
Pakistan’s security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan, battling a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest.
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