The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have reported that from March 22 to 28 this year, 781 Afghan citizens were detained and imprisoned in Pakistan. This figure represents a 50 percent decrease compared to the previous week.<\/p>\n
According to the joint report, 82 percent of those detained were individuals without residence documents and holders of the ACC card, while the remaining 18 percent possessed the Proof of Registration (PoR) card. These statistics indicate that a significant portion of Afghans residing in Pakistan, especially those without valid documents, remain at risk of detention.<\/p>\n
Geographically, 31 percent of detention incidents occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 27 percent in Sindh, 21 percent in Balochistan, 13 percent in Islamabad, and 5 percent in Punjab. Additionally, from the beginning of 2026 through March 28, the highest number of detentions were reported in the districts of Chagai, Islamabad, and Karachi city.<\/p>\n
The agencies noted that prior to 2023, no specific data was collected on the detention of ACC cardholders and undocumented individuals; however, data collection began in early 2023. Nonetheless, the report suggests the actual number of undocumented detainees is likely higher than recorded figures.<\/p>\n
The report also references the Pakistani government’s decision in September 2023 to implement the “Illegal Foreigners’ Return Plan.” Following this initiative, the processes of detention, imprisonment, and deportation of Afghans intensified.<\/p>\n
Continuing these policies, new measures were introduced in 2025, requiring Afghans to leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The scope of deportations expanded to include holders of various residence documents, sparking widespread concern among Afghan migrants and refugee rights organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN agencies report 781 Afghans detained in Pakistan in one week, highlighting increased arrests and deportations amid new government policies since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-migrant-news","category-secondary-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}