Officials in Pakistan defended charging fees for Afghan nationals leaving the country or awaiting Western-sponsored relocations, saying the decision was consistent with local immigration laws.
The target group consists of tens of thousands of people who worked for the US-led NATO military mission in Afghanistan and who fled the country for fear of reprisals after the then-insurgent Taliban seized power in August 2021.
A Pakistani immigration official confirmed on Friday that every Afghan asylum seeker awaiting departure to a third country will be charged more than $800 if they overstay their visa or do not have documents for legal residency.
“The government is doing them a big favor. Otherwise, they would have to pay such an amount in fines every week,” the official told VOA anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
U.S. officials have reported that about 25,000 Afghans could be eligible for resettlement in the United States under a special immigration program. Britain has announced plans to relocate more than 20,000 people from Afghanistan in the coming years.
Western embassies in Islamabad offering relocation plans have reportedly condemned the imposition of exit fees as an unprecedented step and have raised this with Pakistani authorities through relevant United Nations agencies.
On Thursday, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry dismissed “inaccurate” media claims questioning the legality of the fine or claiming it was specific to Afghanistan.
“The fact is that under Pakistani law, as well as immigration laws in several countries, including the United Kingdom, there are fines and penalties for people who overstay their visas or are found to be violating immigration laws,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in her weekly press conference Islamabad.
“So all fines that Pakistan has imposed or will impose are in accordance with our laws,” she said.
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The imposition of exit fees comes against the backdrop of mass deportations of foreigners, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans who are in Pakistan illegally or who have overstayed their visas.
According to official information on Friday, the crackdown has forced almost 360,000 Afghans to return to their country of origin since mid-September. Pakistani authorities have said those awaiting resettlement in the United States and other countries will not be deported to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has also repeatedly made it clear that it does not target the 1.4 million legal Afghan refugees it hosts and more than 800,000 Afghan migrants registered by the Pakistani government in collaboration with the former Afghan government and the International Organization for Migration of the deportation plans.
The United Nations and partner organizations have repeatedly called on Islamabad to suspend its deportation plans, citing the onset of a harsh winter and the “worsening” humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Philippa Candler, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan, said on Tuesday that “mass arrivals are compounding the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where winter temperatures are already plunging to -4°C (24.8°F),” some Locations.
“Many Afghan returnees are at risk, including women and children who could lose their lives in a harsh winter if they do not have adequate shelter,” Candler said.