Afghans in Peshawar shut down businesses ahead of March 31 deadline to leave Pakistan voluntarily
Afghan nationals in Pakistan’s Peshawar have started shutting down their businesses with only five days left until the March 31 deadline for illegally residing individuals and Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave the country voluntarily.
Mass deportations will commence after the deadline, according to an official warning from the Ministry of Interior.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Peshawar, Afghan nationals have started closing down their educational institutions, medical clinics and other businesses.
They have also been issued notices by provincial authorities to shut their businesses before the deadline.
According to sources, many Afghan nationals have returned to their homeland, while some are still present in other areas.
Over a dozen schools and colleges in the district’s Nasir Bagh Road, Board Bazaar, Urmar, Phandu Road, Afghan Colony and Chamkani have been closed as Afghan students returned to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been home to millions of Afghans, most of whom moved across the porous border in the 1980s when the former USSR forces were in Afghanistan.
The deportation campaign was first launched in October 2023 against undocumented Afghans but the government has extended it to all Afghans irrespective of their legal status.
