The deadline for illegal foreign citizens to leave the country is over, now they will be caught

Islamabad: The government-set deadline for Afghan nationals and other foreigners living illegally in Pakistan to leave the country voluntarily and technically expired on Tuesday midnight. Pakistani officials have said that if these people refuse to leave the country, they will have to go through serious legal process within the next 24 days. Meanwhile, the Sindh provincial government has approved Rs 4.5 billion for the repatriation of illegal foreigners. This information has been given in media reports.

The Government of Pakistan has set up ‘holding centres’ across the country. The government had warned illegal immigrants, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by the deadline. The government had said that if they did not do so, they could face the risk of imprisonment and deportation. Officials claimed that those who continued to leave the country of their own free will on November 1 would not be harassed. But those who do not leave by the deadline will be kept in the holding centre.

Acting Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti has said that illegal Afghan citizens are responsible for 14 of the 24 suicide bombings that took place in the country this year. The security of the people of Pakistan is the biggest priority of the government. At least 42 lakh Afghan citizens are living in Pakistan. Of these, at least 30 lakh are living illegally without any legal documents. Bugti has confirmed that more than 20,000 illegal foreigners have left Pakistan in the last three days.