Pakistan sets up deportation centres to hold migrants who are in the country illegally

Pakistan: setting up deportation centres for migrants illegally in the country, including 1.7 million Afghans. Arrests start November 1; Pakistan Minister says no mistreatment of refugees; action against those sheltering migrants.

Pakistan is setting up deportation centres for migrants who are in the country illegally, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, officials said on October 26. Anyone found staying in the country without authorization from next Wednesday (November 1) will be arrested and sent to one of centres.

The move is the latest development in a Pakistani government crackdown to expel foreigners without registration or documents.

Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the government in southwestern Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, said three deportation centres were being set up there. One will be in Quetta, the provincial capital.

Azam Khan, the caretaker Chief Minister for northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the region also would have three deportation centres. More than 60,000 Afghans have returned home since the crackdown was announced, he said.

Migrants who are living in the country illegally should leave before a October 31 deadline to avoid arrest, he said.

Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister, Sarfraz Bugti, says the deadline will not be extended.

Mr. Bugti said during a news conference on October 26 that no migrants living in Pakistan without authorization illegally would be mistreated after their arrests. “They will not be manhandled,” he said, adding that they would get food and medical care until their deportations.