An aggressive deportation drive against the illegally residing Afghan nationals begins in Pakistan’s Punjab, with the Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday ordering the mosques across the province to make public announcements to help identify undocumented Afghans. This comes a day after Pakistan and Afghanistan peace talks failed terribly. The provincial government stated that the Chief Minister has also ordered the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) against individuals found renting or leasing property to illegal Afghan residents.
"CM Maryam has directed her government machinery to announce in mosques across Punjab, a province of 130 million people, to help identify illegally residing Afghan nationals," the official statement said.
The police have been directed to submit a report on houses, shops, factories, hotels, petrol pumps, or any other property rented to Afghans, it said, adding that the CM has asked to use facial recognition technology to identify Afghan nationals living illegally in the province, besides establishing 45 holding centres to shift them there to be deported.
Maryam also "approved legal action against Afghans or other foreigners who entered Pakistan on visit visas or illegally and are engaged in economic activities without authorization."
This month, Pakistan’s Punjab government deported around 22,000 Afghan nationals residing in the province illegally, besides closing down the last Afghan refugee camp.
The provincial government last month de-notified the last Afghan Refugee Camp in Mianwali's “Kot Chandna”, 325 km from Lahore. However, four such camps are still functioning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 in Balochistan. Before the launch of the third phase, the Punjab government repatriated around 43,000 Afghan nationals from April to September 2025, as part of Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigner Repatriation Plan (IFRP).
As per the data of the UN refugee agency, over 3.5 million Afghans have been living in Pakistan, including around 700,000 people who came after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The UN estimated that half of them were undocumented.
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