Pakistan not to expel Afghan refugees, says minister

Pakistan will not force some 2 million Afghan refugees in the country to leave but encourages voluntary repatriation, a Pakistani cabinet minister said Monday, as the legal stay of around 1.4 million registered refugees in Pakistan will end on March 31.


Pakistan Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch told members of the Pak-Afghan Track II Dialogue in Islamabad that Pakistan is treating refugees issue purely on humanitarian grounds, separating it from the security or political domain.

Pakistan also hosts nearly 1 million unregistered Afghan refugees in the country, whose documentation is currently underway across the country.

On Jan. 31, the Pakistani cabinet extended the stay of the registered Afghan refugees in the country for 60 days.
 (chinamedia)
 27/2/18