Islamabad, March 25: Pakistan has begun preparations for the second phase of its repatriation program to bring over one million Afghans home, media reported.
Dawn said that local administrations and police were instructed to map Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders faster.
The push to repatriate hundreds of thousands of ACC holders may begin in early to mid-summer.
UNHCR reports 2.18 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This comprises the 1.3 million refugees with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards from the 2006-07 census and the 880,000 issued ACCs in 2017 after a registration push.
Another wave of Afghan refugees entered Pakistan when the Taliban took control in August 2021.
Officials estimate their numbers at 6,000–8,000, some with legitimate travel permits but an unclear future.
Last November, Dawn reported that Pakistan began repatriating “undocumented aliens”.
The research claimed no official data has been provided on how many of the anticipated 1.7 million illegal Afghans had departed for their homeland since November 2023, but the total likely fell well short of what is now regarded a wildly overblown number.
Dawn claimed that over half a million illegal Afghans returned to Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in the first wave.
