Taliban minister raised the issue of refugee funds during his visit to Pakistan: Embassy | Refugee News
The Taliban’s acting trade minister met with Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad this week, the Afghan embassy said, discussing trade and how the thousands of Afghan citizens who are being deported by Pakistan could be deported. repatriate money and other assets to their home country.
The meeting between Haji Nooruddin Azizi and Pakistan’s Jalil Abbas Jilani took place days after Pakistan said its move to deport more than a million undocumented Afghans was in response to the administration’s displeasure. Taliban to join forces against armed fighters using Afghanistan to carry out attacks. in Pakistan.
Taliban officials say the attacks are an internal matter for Pakistan and have called on Islamabad to stop killing Afghan citizens.
“Bilateral trade, especially goods stretched of [Afghan] traders in Karachi port, smooth movement of [Afghan] characteristics of refugees to [Afghanistan] and related issues were discussed,” the Afghan embassy in Islamabad said in the statement.
Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said that there are restrictions on the movement of money and property to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades.
Pakistan’s foreign office said Jilani conveyed the message: “Full potential for regional trade and connectivity can be harnessed by joint action against terrorism”.
Last month, Pakistan set a November 1 starting date for deporting undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans. He cited security reasons, rejecting calls to reconsider from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies.
According to government figures, there are approximately 4.4 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, 1.7 million of whom are without valid documents.
Three more border crossings were opened
On Monday, Pakistan opened three new border crossings to speed up the return in southwestern Balochistan province as well as the main crossing in Chaman province, said Jan Achakzai, minister of information for the province’s caretaker government.
The number of border crossings used to deport thousands of Afghans rose to five after the new facilities opened. Currently, around 15,000 Afghans have been crossing the border every day from Pakistan. Before the crash, the figure was around 300.
About 305,462 Afghan refugees have left the country, authorities said. The majority, 209,550, crossed the border from the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, said Fazal Rabbi, a senior official in charge of the deportation process.
International aid groups have documented chaotic and desperate scenes among Afghans who have returned from Pakistan. They have expressed alarm at the dire conditions many recently returned Afghans are facing with few resources as the cold winter season sets in and say many are living in overcrowded shelters near the border run by NGOs and Taliban authorities.
“Many Afghans in Pakistan are now facing police raids and the demolition of their homes without due process. Detainees have been denied the right to a lawyer and contact with family members, leaving loved ones in the dark about their whereabouts,” Amnesty International wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling on Pakistan stop exports immediately to prevent this crisis.
Achakzai, the information minister, said that the police in Balochistan had recently arrested more than 1,500 Afghans who did not have valid documents.
Pakistani human rights lawyer Moniza Kakar said in the southern port city of Karachi that police had launched midnight raids on homes and detained Afghan families, including women and children.
The head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Hina Jilani, said that Pakistan does not have a comprehensive mechanism to handle refugees, asylum seekers and migrants without documents, despite hosting Afghans for 40 years.
Also on Monday, police said officers were investigating whether an Afghan man, Asif Khan, killed his 25-year-old Pakistani wife, Ameena Bibi, because she refused to go to Afghanistan with him.
The incident took place the previous day in the northwestern town of Nowshera, police officer Yasir Khan said. He said the suspect left the country with his four children.
Pakistan’s foreign office said the Taliban’s acting trade minister would hold a trilateral meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
The agenda of the tripartite meeting was not clear, but the three countries have been working on plans for the movement of trade and rail links between South and Central Asia that would pass through Afghanistan.
