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Pakistan releases, sends back over 500 Afghan prisoners

January 7, 2023

The prisoners were arrested for entering Pakistan without valid documents. Photos of imprisoned Afghan children triggered uproar in Afghanistan.

https://p.dw.com/p/4LrCa
Afghans in Pakistan working in the carpet business.
Many Afghans have fled into neighboring Pakistan since the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021Image: Faridullah Khan/DW

Pakistani authorities released 524 Afghan citizens on Saturday, whom they had accused of entering without valid travel documents.

The Afghan embassy in Islamabad said in a tweet on Saturday that the migrants were released from prisons in Karachi. They included 54 women and 97 children.

"They will soon be freed and sent to their homeland in a few minutes," the Taliban-controlled embassy said.

It added that their release was "a result of the efforts" of the embassy.

One imprisoned Afghan man lost his life in Pakistani custody. The embassy said that his body was being transported back into the country, with the released prisoners. Local media had reported the deceased crossed into Pakistan seeking medical care.

How were they arrested?

Pakistani police conducted several raids last month, detaining some 1,200 Afghan nationals who entered Karachi without valid travel documents.

The arrests were decried in Afghanistan, especially when images of imprisoned Afghan children began circulating online.

On Saturday, the Afghan embassy shared on Twitter videos purportedly showing the released prisoners.

The arrest further strained the already tense relations between the Pakistani government and the Taliban government.

Tensions between the two South Asian countries increased in the summer of 2021 after Taliban returned to power in Kabul, especially as Islamabad has been consumed in a fight against the Pakistani Taliban.

The Taliban takeover also increased the number of Afghans seeking to flee into Pakistan.

Pakistan is already home to over a million registered Afghan refugees, as per UN figures. Millions of Afghans fled there during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

rmt/aw (AP, dpa)