The Taliban’s Consul General in Karachi announced that nine Afghan citizens have been released from prisons in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Abdul Jabbar Takhari confirmed that the individuals were sent back to Afghanistan via the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing.
According to Takhari, two of the freed individuals were released from Malir Jail in Karachi, while the remaining seven were let go from prisons in Hyderabad, Khairpur, Sukkur, and Larkana. The reason for their detention, he said, was a lack of “legal documentation.”
Takhari said that there are around 35 Afghan inmates in the prisons of Sindh province.
In October, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 6,094 Afghan nationals have been arrested in Pakistan this year for not possessing proper legal documents.
The report from UNHCR comes amid Pakistan’s newly announced policy to deport undocumented Afghan migrants. Since the policy’s implementation in September 2023, over 733,000 Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan, the UNHCR noted.
