Taliban to provide shelter for returning Afghan refugees from Pakistan

Kabul: The Taliban regime in Kabul announced that it will build shelters for the hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan after the neighbouring country formulated a phase-wise process for the expulsion of the undocumented migrants.

Acting Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Khalil Rahman Haqqani instructed the construction of shelters during his recent visit to the Torkham crossing point which borders Pakistan, Xinhua news agency quoted a local media outlet as saying in a report.

More than 150,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan via Torkham over the past few days, the report said.

More than 200,000 Afghan refugees, with the majority of them via Torkham border town and some via Spin Boldak and other crossing points, have reportedly returned to their homeland over the past month.

The Taliban regime’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X that authorities in Torkham are preparing 10,000 lunches and 30,000 dinners for the returnees on Thursday.

In an unprecendented move, Pakistan decided to send back 1.7 million undocumented Afghan refugees to their homeland after decades of stay in the host country, while the Taliban regime has urged Islamabad to reconsider the decision.

The deadline for the refugees to leave Pakistan ended on November 1.

Meanwhile, a crackdown is underway across Pakistan to round up hundreds of undocumented Afghan refugees who still remain in the country.

Pakistan has ignored calls from the UN, rights groups and western countries to reconsider its rigid decision and has maintained that it is doing what it has to amid security concerns.

Rights organisations have termed the decision of the Pakistan government to expel the undocumented Afghas as unprecedented, uncalled for and unjustified.

They say Afghans who have been living in Pakistan for decades, are now facing collateral punishment for strained ties and growing rivalry between the Taliban and the Islamabad government.

Many Afghans fled to Pakistan during its decades of internal conflict since the late 1970s, while the Taliban takeover in 2021 led to another mass exodus.