RAWALPINDI: After 23 days, the district administration has closed down the holding centre set up at the Government Shehbaz Sharif Associate College, Khyaban-i-Sir Syed, where illegal aliens were kept for a night and then sent to the Afghan border for deportation.

After a meeting with the additional chief secretary home department, it was decided that only the holding camp at Hazro would be kept functional, where illegal aliens rounded up from all the six districts of the division - Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Murree and Talagang - will be shifted for deportation.

Talking to Dawn, Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha said illegal foreigners will stay a night or two at the centre in Hazro and then sent to Torkham border for deportation.

Thecentrehas the capacity to accommodate more than 500 people a day, he added.

“We also have established a Nadra office in thecentre where officials will check foreigners’ data through biometric system and keep the data.”

He said special teams had been formed to deploy around thecentrefor protection of the aliens. He said a health counter had been established to provide medicines and other emergency services in case of any health issue to the foreign nationals.

Meanwhile, 120 Afghan nationals illegally residing in the Rawalpindi Division were shifted to the Afghan border from the Hazro centre on Thursday.

The commissioner said earlier the government had fixed Fridays and Saturdays for sending illegal migrants from Rawalpindi Division to Torkham border, but now it has been decided to send them any day.

He said the 120 Afghan nationals kept in the holdingcentres of Rawalpindi division, including Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum had no documents and were shifted to Torkham border and handed over to the authorities for deportation.

He said only those Afghan nationals were being deported who failed to produce any document for staying in the country.

He said those Afghans whose visa had expired had been given a chance to apply for it afresh as per the government policy.

It may be mentioned that there were 55,000 Afghan nationals in the Rawalpindi district and 12,000 of them were identified as illegal foreigners. More than 10,000 of them have so far went back to their homeland.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023