PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday said that it had identified 52,000 illegal migrants in the province for crackdown.

“Over 82,000 undocumented aliens have so far voluntarily returned to their respective countries and 11,000 of them left the country yesterday. We’ve identified and mapped 52,000 illegal residents in various districts of our province for action,” caretaker information minister Barrister Firoze Jamal Shah Kakakhel told a news conference at the home and tribal affairs department here.

Additional chief secretary (home) Abid Majeed and other senior officials were also present on the occasion, according to an official statement.

The minister said that authorities in the province would begin relocating undocumented Afghan refugees to the designated “processing zones” after the expiry of the Oct 31 deadline for illegal migrants to leave the country.

Kakakhel says over 82,000 undocumented migrants left country

He said that the government was committed to facilitating voluntary departure of “illegal” foreigners from the country.

“Those [illegal aliens] willingly to leave Pakistan voluntarily will receive facilitation and easy access to the border. However, those who do not so will be shifted to designated processing zones from November 1 before being deported,” he said.

Mr Kakakhel said that a central control room had been established at the home department to oversee the “significant operation with the help of integrated procedures to monitor and coordinate efforts.”

He added that the control room served as a crucial liaison among provinces, districts, and government departments ensuring the repatriation of illegal residents in an orderly manner.

The minister said that the repatriation of illegal migrants would be conducted in three phases.

“These [undocumented] foreigners will be temporarily kept in designated processing zones from where they will be deported to their respective countries,” he said.

Mr Kakakhel said that under the plans, the exercise would be executed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Friday and Saturday in Punjab, and on Wednesday and Thursday in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that from Nov 1, the federal government would begin a “single-document” policy welcoming those entering Pakistan on passport and visas only.

The minister also said that the caretaker government was committed to ensuring the safety of public life and property in the province and had taken strict measures to foster a peaceful environment and economic stability in the province.

He said efforts were made to check smuggling, control extortion, the use of illegal SIM cards, and profiteering and all of them had yielded “positive results” contributing to the enhanced economic stability in the country.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2023