According to the media reports and as reported by the Afghans living there, hundreds of Afghan refugees have been arrested illegally in Quetta city of Pakistan by police and other law enforcing authorities on the charges of illegal stay in the country.
In this wave of arrest, hundreds of Afghan refugees have been arrested and according to the informed sources, police has been authorized to arrest hundreds more and report this performance to the high-ups. Police arrested the refugees indiscriminately; those with refugee cards and those without them. Police says that cards of Afghan refugees are expired and they cannot anymore live in Pakistan on the basis of this card. It must be cleared that these identity cards were issued to the Afghan refugees by NADRA, the organization of government of Pakistan that also issues identity cards for its citizens.
These cards expired at the end of 2012 but then after a series of negotiations between officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and United Nations, an agreement was reached according to which government of Pakistan agreed to extend the stay of Afghan refugees till the end of 2015.
It was stated that for the remaining three years, same identity cards would be accepted and police and other government authorities would not be able to bother them. But police and other authorities of government often resort to an illegal practice to show their performance and this practice is repeated after intervals of some years. Without any proper reason, they are ordered by their high-ups to arrest a certain number of Afghan refugees from the city. Usually this number exceeds many thousands.
Then police starts arresting refugees from all the corners of the city and they don’t consider any card or legal document. These refugees, mostly poor like laborers and others are arrested and police stations are filled with them.
They are then deported out of the country from the border city of Chaman. Every day, hundreds of refugees are arrested and this report is proudly presented to the high-ups that large number of illegally residing refugees has been arrested. At the same time, such a wave of arrests becomes a good opportunity to make money for all the members of police; from a simple constable to the senior officers. Many refugees show willingness to get free by giving away some bribe to the police and in this way, a huge sum of money is collected and due share of officers are also transferred from this corrupt money.
Once again, Afghan refugees in Quetta are facing this problem and are passing through the days and nights of continuous pain and fear. It is necessary that Afghan government should make immediate action against these and contact Pakistani authorities to bring an end to these detentions.