Pakistan on Friday opened more border centres to expedite the return of tens of thousands of undocumented Afghan nationals, an official said, Dawn reported.
Meanwhile, following Pakistan's decision to expel nearly 1.7 million foreign nationals, primarily Afghans, schools teaching Afghan children in Pakistan have started closing their doors for them.
Pakistan has set a November 1 deadline for all undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans, to leave the country or face forced deportation.
As per reports, Riyadh authorities have notified Islamabad about this matter, shedding light on the acquisition of these fraudulent passports by Afghan citizens through various passport centers operating within Pakistan.
The caretaker Home Minister retired Brigadier Haris Nawaz, disclosed this information while also announcing plans for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in Sindh.
On October 1, the Afghan Embassy in India declared the closure of its operations citing "lack of resources" and "failure to meet Afghanistan's interests" by the Taliban regime.
According to the latest UN figures, some 1.3 million Afghans enjoy the status of registered refugees, while another 880,000 have legal status to stay in Pakistan. At least 700 Afghans have been arrested since early September in Karachi alone, and hundreds more in other cities, police figures
According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the population of Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan has surged to 3.7 million as of June this year, with a mere 1.3 million of them officially registered with the authorities.
Health officials have told Dawn that eight Congo fever cases had been reported in the province with three of them under treatment at Peshawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex and one at the capital city’s Khyber Teaching Hospital.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of Pakistan's National Assembly raised a concern about the lack of transparency in issuing visas for Afghan nationals and demanded the elimination of defects in issuing visas for Afghan citizens, reported Khaama Press.