ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Amnesty International on Wednesday urged the Pakistani government to immediately withdraw its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” calling the policy “cruel,” unlawful, and a violation of international human rights standards.
The warning comes days ahead of a March 31 deadline imposed by Pakistani authorities for the expulsion of undocumented Afghan nationals from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi — a move rights advocates say puts thousands of vulnerable people at risk.
“The Pakistani government’s unyielding and cruel deadline, which is less than a week away, to remove Afghan refugees and asylum seekers from two major cities… shows little respect for international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement,” said Isabelle Lassée, deputy regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International, in a statement.
She criticized what she called the government’s use of executive orders to bypass due process, and accused authorities of scapegoating Afghan refugees.
“It is disingenuous to frame Afghan refugees as a menace to Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” she said. “The government is making a scapegoat of a community that has long been disenfranchised and fleeing persecution.”
While the full contents of the repatriation plan have not been made public, Amnesty and other advocacy groups say the policy has been accompanied by an increasingly hostile narrative portraying Afghan nationals as criminals, terrorists, and drug traffickers. Rights groups also point to a surge in arrests and deportations, particularly in early 2025.
In January, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, announced that no Afghan nationals would be permitted to remain in Islamabad without a no-objection certificate (NOC), a document that is notoriously difficult to obtain. The government has not provided a legal explanation for the requirement. That same month, the U.N. International Organization for Migration recorded 986 deportations from Pakistan.
On March 7, Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior issued a new directive ordering all “illegal foreigners” — including Afghan refugees holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACCs) — to leave the country voluntarily before March 31. Though the notice was quickly removed from the ministry’s website, a copy was preserved by the Joint Action Committee for Refugees (JAC-R), which also reported similar eviction notices in areas outside the capital.
Lassée accused the Pakistani authorities of operating in secrecy and without accountability. “The Afghan community is being subjected to arbitrary decisions that lack transparency,” she said. “Expelling refugees who have rebuilt their lives in Pakistan will undo years of personal and community progress.”
Amnesty International called on Pakistan to halt the repatriation plan and instead align its refugee policy with international human rights law. The organization also urged international partners to monitor the situation closely and press Islamabad to ensure protections for Afghan asylum seekers.
