A Pakistani minister said all Afghan refugees must leave the country by January, as a crackdown on illegal immigrants launched by Islamabad last month appeared set to intensify.

“All refugees will have to leave Pakistan because the civil war in Afghanistan has ended,” Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai told reporters in Quetta on Wednesday.

“The caretaker government will try to send all illegal Afghan refugees back by January,” he added.

According to government figures, around 4.4 million Afghan refugees live in Pakistan, 1.7 million of them without valid documents.

Many fled decades of war at home, while others were born to displaced parents.

Mr Achakzai said that once all illegal migrants are expelled from the country, a timeframe will be announced for the other refugees to leave the country.

The minister said the authorities had decided to start the second phase of the deportation process, which had slowed down recently.

During the second phase, law enforcement agencies would arrest illegal refugees from all across the country and process them for deportation.

Pakistan announced the mass deportations of undocumented or illegal Afghan refugees last month, a move criticised by Western governments and global human rights groups.

Observers see the expulsion as a way of pressuring the Taliban to take action against militants near the border.

There are other, deeper-seated resentments between the two neighbours.

Some Pakistani officials, including in the government, have blamed Afghans, who have been in the country for decades, for some of the troubles facing the country’s beleaguered economy.

So far, about 351,044 Afghan refugees have left the country, according to authorities.

On Tuesday alone, some 3,002 Afghan refugees crossed the border to the neighbouring country. 

(dpa/NAN)