Army is unable to choke Pak-Afghan border adjacent to Noshiki. Entry and exit of terrorists in Pak territory are very easy.
More Than 300,000 Afghans Flee to Pakistan Since Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan
December 16, 2021 2:53 PM
FILE - Afghan refugees rest in tents at a makeshift shelter camp in Chaman, a Pakistani town on the border with Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021.
Share
Print
ISLAMABAD —
The Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in August forced more than 300,000 Afghans to take shelter in Pakistan but now most of them are being asked to go back.
Pakistani officials revealed the numbers Thursday for the first time, saying 105,000 Afghans entered Pakistan on valid visas, though they have stayed put even after the expiry of their travel documents.
“The rest of the 200,000 are illegal entrants and we are asking them to leave within 90 days as there is no crisis in Afghanistan,” Fawad Hussain, the Pakistani information minister, told VOA.
The minister noted his country already hosts nearly 3 million Afghans, including officially declared refugees and illegal economic migrants, and that the fragile Pakistani economy cannot bear the burden of new arrivals.
Pakistan, which shares a 2,600-kilometer border with its neighbor, tightened border controls after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15 in a bid to discourage a fresh influx of refugees.
Officials said the large numbers of Afghans who arrived in the country illegally used old refugee status cards or documents declaring them as members of the tribes divided by the 1893 British demarcation of the border.
Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, said the government was devising a mechanism to enable those Afghans whose visas have expired to get their documents renewed within an officially "designated time frame so they are not here illegally.”
Sadiq told a meeting Wednesday of Pakistani and Afghan businessmen and civil society representatives earlier this week in Islamabad that his government does not plan to launch a crackdown on the illegal Afghan entrants if they are not involved in any criminal activity.
“We would even like to facilitate the stay of our Afghan brothers and sisters in case they want to live or do business here legally,” Sadiq told the gathering organized by the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guardian said :
"Every day, tens of thousands of people have gathered at the border and about 20,000 have been crossing " every day, almost triple the usual 6,000."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------
Iran to wall off Baluchistan border
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder investigates smuggling at the Baluchistan-Iran border.
By
Kamal Hyder
Published On 11 Jun 200711 Jun 2007
Pakistan’s paramilitary force regularly patrols the border with Iran.
They’re on the lookout for guns, drugs and illegal immigrants.
But all they find tonight is fuel smugglers.
| Exclusive report |
Watch Kamal Hyder’s report on Iran’s controversial wall
Some parked trucks are waiting for cheap Iranian fuel smuggled by camels and Iranian-made pickup trucks.
The security forces thought they might be carrying weapons, so they search them, but discover nothing.
But while it may be quiet here tonight, their comrades are trading fire along the Afghan frontier with narcotics traders.
They have lost many men to an enemy that has fast vehicles and plenty of firepower.
After a tense night, dawn comes at Taftan, Pakistan‘s only legal official border crossing into Iran and famed by locals as the “road to London“.
Over 600km from Quetta, getting to Taftan is a journey of almost 12 hours of careful driving.
Frontier wall
Iran is constructing a concrete wall and many locals suspect they may seal off the entire frontier.
Just over the hills, less than 100km is Pakistan‘s frontier with Afghanistan.
| | Iran is building a wall along Pakistan’s border in an effort to stem smuggling |
But for now, Iran has left gaps for locals to cross at what they call the Easement Gate and carry essential commodities.
Both the governments have agreed that there should be easement rights, in spite of the fact that Iran is building a huge wall along its frontier with Pakistan.
Growing trade
Commercial trade between the two countries is growing. It is now over $250m, almost double of last year’s.
We got a rare chance to see exactly what these people carry across the border.
There were crates and crates of mangos – this is the mango season in Pakistan and mangos are very popular.
From the Iranian side however, detergents, toiletries, pastries and cakes are exported to Pakistan.
Pakistan, Iran and India want to build a pipeline that will travel over Baluchistan’s challenging terrain.
The ground in some places may look deceptively plain but it is undulating.
And security forces are already beefing up their strength in an area that is of vital importance as a corridor for the country’s future gas and oil pipelines.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA |
8
