ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will start deporting around 1.4 million Afghan Proof of Registration (PoR) card holders from September 1, the Pakistani interior ministry said on Monday, as Islamabad gave a fresh call for Afghan nationals to leave the country.
Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades, fleeing successive wars, as well as hundreds of thousands who arrived after the return of the Taliban government in 2021.
A deportation drive first launched in 2023 was renewed in April when Pakistan’s government rescinded hundreds of thousands of residence permits for Afghans, threatening to arrest anyone who did not leave.
Islamabad this year said it wanted 3 million Afghans to leave the country, including 1.4 million people with PoR cards and some 800,000 with Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC).
“Afghan nationals holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards shall be repatriated to Afghanistan as part of the ongoing implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP),” the interior ministry said in a notification issued on Monday.
