Pakistan releases 208 Afghan detainees from its prisons

Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs department announced the release and repatriation of 208 detainees from Pakistani jails, reported Kabul-based Khaama Press. The Foreign Affairs Department of Afghanistan added that the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad and the Afghan Consulate General in Karachi collaborated to ensure the safe return of the 208 released detainees.

According to the statement, the Taliban government of Afghanistan provided financial assistance for the transfer of all the prisoners to Kabul. The Afghan Diaspora Network has reported that over one million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan are caught between the Taliban and Islamabad, as the latter is allegedly pressuring them into returning to Afghanistan and facing a precarious existence.

Afghan civilians have been compelled to flee their homes repeatedly over the past few decades, whenever the nation has been plunged into conflicts, including during the Cold War era and after the resurgence of the Taliban. The report stated that Pakistan has played a "snakes and ladders" game with the Afghan people over the years.

According to the Afghan Diaspora Network, Afghan refugees were initially exploited by Pakistan as a means to gain influence in Afghanistan and pursue its strategic objective of retaining Kabul as its "strategic backyard".

In the wake of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, over 600,000 Afghan nationals have sought refuge in Pakistan, joining the four million Afghan refugees already residing in the country. Among them, only 1.32 million individuals are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"After 2001, the situation changed. The Afghan refugees were no longer welcome. Pakistan imposed stricter monitoring on refugees and implemented sterner detention and deportation policies. Now they are being pushed back into the hell from where they had fled," stated the report.

Khaama Press reported that in March of this year, the Taliban-appointed Refugees and Repatriation Department declared that over 2,000 Afghan refugees had returned to their homeland from Iran and Pakistan.

The Refugees and Repatriation Department announced on Twitter that on Saturday, 1,851 Afghan refugees who had been residing in Iran and 331 others who were in Pakistan returned home through the Spin Boldak and Islamqala crossing points. The department also noted that out of the 331 refugees who returned from Pakistan, 70 individuals were released from Pakistani prisons.

Earlier, the Pakistan Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Refugee Agency had previously urged the Pakistani government to treat Afghan citizens humanely.