Kabul: Police have arrested 13 Afghan doctors and one medical student in Multan city of Pakistan's Punjab province and took them to a deportation centre. The arrests were made despite the group saying that their visa applications have remained pending for nearly a year, local media reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the detainees said that police arrested them from a government hospital in Multan before taking them to a detention facility in Attock, where they now face possible deportation. The group said they had applied for new visas or visa extensions about a year ago, however, Pakistani authorities did not yet take any decision on it, Afghanistan-based news agency Khaama Press reported.
According to detainees, five of them had applied for entry visas while the other doctors requested for extension of their existing visas. They said Pakistani police and security agencies had repeatedly checked their documents over the past year, however, their immigration cases remained pending without any official resolution.
The doctors voiced concern that they could be deported to Afghanistan before completing their medical specialisation and training programmes. They requested Pakistani government and Afghan authorities to intervene and allow them to remain in Pakistan until they complete their studies, Khaama Press reported.
The arrest of Afghan doctors and medical student comes as Pakistan continues to intensify its crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals, especially Afghan people, with authorities increasing detention and deportation operations in the country in recent months.
Meanwhile, a total of 525 Afghan families were repatriated from Pakistan to Afghanistan as three refugee camps in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were completely vacated.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Umar Khittab Khan said that the phased repatriation of Afghan refugees was being conducted as per the orders issued by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
He stated that under this policy, 525 Afghan families residing in the refugee camps at Bizan Khel, Ghoriwala, and Mamand Khel, were repatriated to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing.
According to the ADC, the authorities were now focusing on Afghan nationals who lived in rented houses, private residences in Bannu and other surrounding areas. He said that the records of Afghan nationals were being shared with their respective police stations and efforts were being made to conduct their early repatriation.
On June 28, Pakistan's Ministry of Interior ordered the immediate arrest of any Afghan national found living in the country without a valid visa from July 10.
Pakistan renewed its deportation drive first launched in 2023 in April last year when the government rescinded hundreds of thousands of residence permits for Afghans and warned them of arrests if they did not leave the country.
--IANS
