Tag: deportation

  • Karachi gangster, US spy Kamran Faridi, freed from American jail on condition of deportation

    Karachi gangster, US spy Kamran Faridi, freed from American jail on condition of deportation

    Kam­ran Faridi, a former gangster from Karachi, later serving as a high-profile agent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has been released after serving nearly four years of his seven-year sentence in a Florida prison.

    Faridi was sentenced to 84 months of imprisonment on his convictions for “transmitting threats in interstate commerce, threatening to assault a federal officer, and obstruction of justice,” on December 9, 2022.

    On March 18, 2024, a New York federal judge, reduced the sentence of Kamran Faridi to 72 months.

    Faridi was recently released on some conditions which most prominently include surrendering his US citizenship and agreeing to leave the United States permanently before August.

    Faridi, now 60, grew up in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi. He was affiliated with the Peoples Students Federation (PSF), and was a close associate of PSF leader Najeeb Ahmed, who was assassinated in 1990.

    His family sent him to Sweden after he was found involved in several violent acts.

    Faridi migrated to the US in 1991, and within four years, he purchased a gas station in Atlanta, Georgia. There he met some FBI agents who were impressed with his proficiency in Urdu, Pun­jabi, Hindi, and Spanish. In 1996, they formally recruited him as a full-time informant and agent, according to Dawn.

    Faridi’s journey from a street hustler to FBI agent came to light when he played a pivotal role in the arrest of a Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala in London in 2018. He orchestrated a plot, posed as a Russian mafia operative, to trap Motiwala in illegal activities. However, a rift developed between Faridi and his FBI handlers when he threatened to expose their manipulation of evidence against Motiwala. This led to the end of his career and he was arrested by Scotland Yard shortly afterwards.

    In a report by Geo News, Murtaza Ali Shah explains the extraordinary journey of the Pakistani-origin FBI agent, whose residence permits in UAE and Turkey, issued by FBI have been revoked and he is released only on the condition of never coming back to the US.

  • Deportation of Afghan card holders will begin from April 15

    Deportation of Afghan card holders will begin from April 15

    The federal interior ministry has directed the Punjab government to initiate the second phase of an operation aimed at deporting Afghan citizen card holders starting from April 15.

    During a video conference chaired by Federal Interior Secretary Aftab Durrani, in the presence of Punjab Home Secretary Noorul Amin and other senior officials, it was decided that the federal government would provide Punjab with lists of Afghan Citizen Card Holders. These lists will then be shared with law enforcement agencies, including the police.

    Initially, card holders will be encouraged to voluntarily return to Afghanistan. Subsequently, those who do not comply will be apprehended and deported. Sources emphasised that the availability of data on Afghan citizen card holders within the federal government will streamline the process, eliminating previous challenges associated with tracing illegal foreigners.

    Following the completion of the second phase of deportations, plans for the third phase, targeting Afghan POR (Proof of Residence) card holders, were also discussed. According to sources, over 400,000 illegal Afghan nationals have already been deported.

  • More than half a million Afghans return from Pakistan

    More than half a million Afghans return from Pakistan

    More than 500,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan in the four months since Islamabad ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday.

    According to the latest figures reported by the UN migration agency, 500,200 Afghans left Pakistan between September 15, 2023 and January 13, 2024.

    Most rushed to the border in the days leading up to a November 1 exit deadline Islamabad set for the 1.7 million Afghans it said were living illegally in Pakistan, and as police opened dozens of holding centres.

    “Since the initial peak around November 1, the number of individuals crossing these official border points have consistently decreased but remains higher than pre-September 15th,” an IOM statement said.

    Pakistan defended the crackdown by pointing to security concerns in its regions bordering Afghanistan and pressure on its struggling economy.

    “Some Afghans forced to return may be at risk of persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention and/or torture or ill-treatment,” the UN’s Afghan mission said in a report on Monday.

    Meanwhile, the busiest border crossing between the two countries remained closed for the tenth day running in a dispute over document rules for commercial drivers.

    The row centres on demands for drivers from both sides to have visas and passports — documents many Afghans do not have — as Pakistan cracks down on cross-border movements.

    More than 400 trucks were stranded on the Pakistan side of the Torkham crossing on Monday, according to a border official who asked not to be named.

    Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have grown increasingly fraught in recent months, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban government of failing to root out militants staging attacks in Pakistan from their soil.

    Kabul has always rejected the allegations.

    Millions of Afghans fleeing conflict have poured into Pakistan over the past four decades, including some 600,000 since the Taliban ousted the US-backed government and imposed its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

    Some of the Afghans crossing into Afghanistan as a result of Islamabad’s eviction scheme were entering the country for the first time, having lived their whole lives in Pakistan.

    Upon arrival, migrants have received modest assistance from the government and NGOs in a country contending with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

  • Number of repatriated Afghans exceeds four lakh

    The deportation of illegally residing Afghans from across the country continues with another 2,473 Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan yesterday alone.

    This included 232 families travelling in around 126 vehicles. Whereas on December 7, 2,473 Afghans were sent back, including 825 men, 523 women and 1,125 children.

    Samaa News reports an additional figure of 2,055 Afghan citizens who have returned among whom were 426 women and 1,045 children.

    Anadolu Agency reports that over 460,000 undocumented Afghan refugees left Pakistan last month while according to the latest UN figures, 1.3 million Afghans are registered refugees and 880,000 have legal permission to stay in Pakistan.

  • Afghan migrants barred from supporting or funding elections

    The Ministry of Interior announced on Monday that Afghan migrants are barred from supporting candidates in the upcoming general elections scheduled for February 8 next year.

    The caretaker government, citing security concerns, has initiated a nationwide campaign to expel millions of illegal foreigners, predominantly Afghan citizens, residing in the country.

    The Ministry of Interior specified that both illegal and “legal” Afghans residing in Pakistan are prohibited from funding political and electoral activities, including providing funds to any candidate, in the upcoming polls.

    “Any Afghan citizen involved in such activities will be deported regardless of his or her legal status in Pakistan,” it stated.

    Pakistanis were also cautioned not to provide employment to illegal aliens or assist such individuals in obtaining employment.

    “Information about any such illegal alien or the person providing employment to him should be provided to the Ministry of Interior for legal action on the helpline available on the website of the Ministry.”

    Of the over four million Afghans in Pakistan, an estimated 1.7 million are undocumented, many having fled their war-torn country during decades of internal conflict, with another exodus occurring after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.

    While the government asserts that its policy targets all illegal aliens, irrespective of nationality or ethnicity, human rights organizations, including the UN, have expressed concerns, emphasizing the importance of a “voluntary” return.

    Amidst the ongoing efforts, several Pakistani politicians and Human Rights activists have approached the Supreme Court, seeking judicial intervention against the caretaker government’s deportation of illegal foreign nationals, including Afghans.

  • No ‘illegal alien’ sent back on Friday thanks to verification process installed by Afghan Consulate General

    For the first time since the start of the repatriation plan of undocumented immigrants early this month, not a single ‘illegal alien’ was sent home via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday as Afghan authorities has announced to link the acceptance of deportations with the verification of their status by the Afghan consulate-general here.

    The decision was made after multiple cases of Afghan-looking Pakistanis being deported to Afghanistan surfaced. “Multiple cases of Pakistanis being sent to Afghanistan as illegal migrants have been reported,” an official source in the Afghan Consulate told Dawn.

    Unfortunately, whenever Afghan authorities took such Pakistanis to the border, Pakistani officials refused to receive them.

    The other reason stated by Afghan consulate is the harassment Afghan deportees are facing at the hands of Pakistani authorities even though many of them are repatriating voluntarily.

    “Many illegal aliens are leaving Pakistan voluntarily but they’re stopped and taken into custody on their way before their repartition. They’re not given time to carry their belongings,” an official told Dawn.

    Afghan consulate expressed concern over the separation of families that has been observed over the month. They said in “many” cases, men from undocumented families were deported, leaving behind their female dependants.

    Pakistani authorities have said that they have not been informed about the deportation condition, claiming that all allegations leveled by Afghan consulate are “baseless”, delaying the process of deportation.

    “Only deportation is linked with the verification letter. The voluntary repatriation is still continuing without any hurdle,” Pakistan responded.

    However, around 119 illegal migrants were deported from Punjab to Afghanistan via the Torkham border crossing on Thursday, according to officials.

  • Supreme Court will hear petition against deportation of Afghan refugees

    Supreme Court will hear petition against deportation of Afghan refugees

    In a significant development on Monday, the Supreme Court decided to entertain a petition challenging the government’s move to force out Afghan refugees from the country. The decision comes after the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office initially raised objections to the petition’s maintainability, putting a temporary halt on its progress.

    Despite the decision to entertain the petition, a specific date for the hearing is yet to be announced. According to sources, Justice Yahya Afridi of the Supreme Court heard the appeal against the objections in his chamber on Monday, as confirmed by a counsel for the petitioners.

    Mohsin Dawar took to X (former Twitter) and said, “We appeared before Justice Yahya Afridi for the Chamber Appeal against the Registrar’s objection on our petition against the mass deportation of Afghan Refugees. Our appeal has been accepted and the petition will be heard by the Supreme Court.”

    The petition, returned by the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office on November 8, faced objections related to its maintainability. One notable objection was the absence of a specific question of public importance regarding the enforcement of fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution, warranting the invocation of Article 184(3).

    In response to the objections, the petitioners contended that their case raised critical issues pertaining to fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. The appeal, filed by Umer Ijaz Gillani on behalf of human rights activists and politicians, argued that the issues presented in the petition are essential for safeguarding the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

    “The issues raised in the petition are critical for securing the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution,” stated the appeal. It emphasized the need to prevent constitutional promises from becoming mere rhetoric, asserting, “The promises contained in the Constitution must never be allowed to become mere verbiage, the harbingers of false hope.”

    The petitioners include prominent figures such as Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, Human rights activist Amina Masood Janjua, National Democratic Movement Chairman Mohsin Dawar, lawyer Jibran Nasir, Rohail Kasi, Syed Muaz Shah, Pastor Ghazala Parveen, lawyer Iman Zainab Mazari, Ahmad Shabbar, Advocate Imran Shafiq, Luke Victor, and Sijal Shafiq.

    The petitioners stated in their press release on Sunday, “After 18 days of eager wait and continuous legal struggle, the Supreme Court has finally fixed our Case against the Caretaker Government’s Mass Deportation drive for a preliminary hearing. The hearing will be conducted by a 1-member bench comprising Mr. Justice Yahya Afridi inside his Chamber. It is scheduled for 1:00 pm on Monday, 20th November, 2023.

    Needless to say that under Article 184(3), the principal responsibility for taking charge of the situation and preventing systemic violation of fundamental rights vests in the Court itself. The petitioners’ role is that of informants who apprise the Court about what is happening and prick its judicial conscience.

    What has been happening to scores of people since October 3, when this draconian Deportation Drive was launched by a government lacking all mandate, is clear to all and sundry. However, in order to assist the Court in discharge of its sacred duty, the counsel for the Petitioners will appear before the bench.”

    The government of Pakistan decided to deport all the illegal aliens from the country early in October.

    A vast majority of them are Afghans who were given a deadline of November 1 to leave the country voluntarily or else there would be a crackdown.

    The government has identified phases in which these Afghan immigrants will be repatriated under the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan.

    There is a large number of 1.7 million Afgan refugees which the government aims to repatriate in the first phase of the plan. More than 200,000 of them have been repatriated until now.

    Aurat March protests

    Aurat March Lahore reiterated its demand that the Government of Pakistan immediately halt deportations of Afghan refugees, during a protest on Saturday.

    The protestors further stated that the hastily imposed 1 November expulsion deadline is an authoritarian decision that exceeds the caretaker government’s limited constitutional mandate. It effectively overturned decades of refugee policy overnight without accountability or transparency.

    Furthermore, the ill-thought-out decision has resulted in the denial of Afghan refugees’ rights to liberty,due process, and, in many cases, citizenship.

    On 29 October 2023, Aurat March chapters from across the country marked their protest and addressed an open letter urging the caretaker Prime Minister, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, to reverse his decision.

    However, this caretaker government has failed to yield to these demands and has since doubled down on its decision by announcing that the second phase of deportations will be of “documented” refugees.

    Aurat March stated, “We refuse this insidious distinction between “documented” and “undocumented” refugees; all refugees have the non-derogable right to non-refoulement and deserve support, not persecution.”

  • Racist Pakistan, now an apparent reality

    Afghan deportation under the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan launched by the caretaker setup has instigated a huge humanitarian crisis in the country. As people who have called Pakistan home for decades leave unwillingly, their children strapped to their pitiful belongings in small trucks, three sets of views have become prevalent in the country.

    The first is propounded by the government: the situation of unrest and civil war has quelled in Afghanistan so it’s time for these refugees to go back. Because the land they come from is contributing to rising terrorism in Pakistan, their exit is inevitable. This narrative is deeply rooted in a superiority complex coming from hosting Afghans for decades, as is evident by the affirmative statements said as a foreword to every such explanation.

    The second is the humanitarian stance where it is claimed that people who have lived here for years are not alien anymore, giving them refuge has brought aid of millions of dollars to Pakistan, and that this forceful expulsion is against the rights of refugees.

    The third point of view stems from the ground realities. It is about the reality and not the narrative. This view is not just looking at the expulsion of Afghans, it is also seeing latent racism, poor execution of the plan, the rush in which it has been carried out, and the fatal flaws it carries. This view sees that the deportation is being carried out by an unelected government, blind raids are being conducted where people with legal documents are getting arrested, contrary to the claims of the government that only illegal foreigners will be arrested. It also shows video documents of the Pashtun community being targeted, even if they are Pakistani – picked up by the police and deported to foreign lands only because they look like, or talk like, them. It sees families getting harassed, and children being separated from parents even though these guardians are desperately proving their Pakistaniat. It displays the human tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes without any media coverage.

    Some experts believe that the policy is part of a broader retaliation for the Afghan Taliban’s failure to rein in the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), even as the militant group orchestrates attack upon attack on Pakistani soil.

    Videos have emerged where parents are showing the birth certificates of children who do not hold a CNIC yet are sent to the Chaman border for the journey to Afghanistan. Anas, a 16-year-old boy, managed to call his father, pleading with him to save him from being deported while the SHO in front of the holding centre nonchalantly said that people sent by mistake are not going to be reproduced by the authorities. Media presence is already banned in the holding centres and there is no way to question this. The mainstream media is also not giving the matter due attention.

    The government is turning a blind eye to the suffering of four million Afghan refugees forced to leave on the brink of a hard winter to a land foreign to them since they were born here.

    The government does not need to emulate any country when it is itself setting an unprecedented level of cruelty.

    Siding with xenophobia is a xenophobic act in itself.

  • HR Lawyer Moniza Kakkar’s account reported by PTA for speaking about Afghans

    HR Lawyer Moniza Kakkar’s account reported by PTA for speaking about Afghans

    Human Rights Lawyer and activist Moniza Kakar has been active on Twitter to show the suffering caused by the government policy of repatriation of Afghans. She has been vocal about the Pashtun community getting deported while being mistaken for Afghans. Her reporting and advocacy of the rights of refugees has gained her the ire of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) which has sent a complaint to Twitter, stating that her account is posting against the policies of the state.

    She posted screenshots of the email she received from Twitter on her account, stating that in the interest of transparency, “we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from PTA regarding your Twitter account, @Moni-Kakar, that claims the following content violated LAW of Pakistan.”

    To this, former Senator and leader of the National Democratic Movement Afrasiab Khattak responded, “HR lawyering is not easy in Pakistan”.

    While talking to The Current, Moniza seemed unfazed, stating, “Aise kam karein ge to zahir si bat hai kuch to masail ka samna karna parta hai [When we do things like these, then of course we have to face some problems].”

    She went on to explain that this time round, Twitter has been requested to block her account altogether. She has also posted the tweet that has been referred to the Twitter team by PTA. It was a video showing a documented Afghan refugee, outside the holding centre in Karachi, whose wife and two-month-old were picked up by the police in a raid.
    Upon asking if she has another account on social media, she mentioned that her LinkedIn profile is active.

  • Pakistan should not make more enemies, cautions Taliban Refugee Minister

    Pakistan should not make more enemies, cautions Taliban Refugee Minister

    The Taliban government’s refugees minister, Khalil Haqqani, has said in an interview with AFP that, “They [Pakis­tani authorities] should not give Afghans a hard time, they should not make more enemies.” The statement was said in the context of the mass exodus of refugees from Pakistan under the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan.

    Authorities on the Afghanistan side have established centres several kilometres from a border crossing along with camps for families in what was described as an “emergency situation” by the Afghan officials. “We are constantly in contact with them [Pakis­tani authorities] asking for more time. People must be allowed to return with dignity,” he reiterated.

    Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi also visited the Torkham border and asserted that the deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is in violation of International laws. He also mentioned that the ones coming back are their brethren and this is their home. To address all their problems will be the first priority of the government.