More than 500 Afghans freed from Karachi jail

Embassy says released Afghans will be deported to their country

As many as 524 Afghan nationals have been freed from Karachi prison on the request of Afghan Embassy in Islamabad.

Those released from the prison on Saturday include 54 women and 97 children, who were arrested for not having travelling documents by Sindh Police in Karachi, the Afghan embassy said in a statement.

The Afghan nationals would be deported back to their country in line with the court’s order while all necessary documents for their repatriation have been provided by the Afghan counsel general in Karachi, the statement added.

It further said that the transportation and other basic items will be provided to them by the Afghan embassy.

The development came days after a petition was been filed in the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) urging it to restrain the federal government from detaining or forcefully deporting Afghan asylum-seekers.

The petition, which has been filed under Section 9 of the NCHR Act 2012, contends that under the law, those Afghans refugees whose applications for asylum are still pending before the UNHCR can neither be detained nor deported.

To do so would violate the principle of non-refoulement which Pakistan is legally bound to respect under international human rights treaties, international customary law and numerous articles of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The petition was filed by Umer Ijaz Gilani, a practicing lawyer and a Pakistani citizen. He made the Federation through interior secretary, DG immigration and passport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary, Ministry of SAFRON chief commissioner Afghan refugees, National Database and Registration Authority chairman and the country representative of the United National High Commission for Refugees respondents.

The issue recently caused alarm among the generous and kind-hearted people of Pakistan with the emergence in the media of a picture of children of Afghan refugees locked up in a prison in Sindh. Gilani said that the subsequent statement by Sindh Minister Sharjeel Memon confirmed that at least 129 Afghan female asylum seekers along with 178 children were jailed in the province.

Local authorities have decided to deport illegally-settled Afghan nationals from the country following the end of their sentences, according to documents of the Sindh Home Department.

Around 530 Afghans have been released after they completed their sentences in different jails across Sindh. All the released Afghan prisoners, according to documents, have completed their two-month-long sentences awarded by different courts.

Around 800 illegal Afghan immigrants are still behind bars in various Sindh jails. Police officers have been ordered to hold the prisoners in custody and take them to the Chaman border.

The provincial home department has directed to also inform the Afghan Consulate in Karachi about the deportation of its nationals, the documents showed.

According to the documents, around 169 men were released from the Hyderabad jail; 148 nationals were freed from the Karachi jail. Therefore, a total of 317 Afghan prisoners were let out from both jails combined.

Forty-one children were released from Karachi and Hyderabad prisons’ juvenile jails. From Karachi and Hyderabad women jails, 56 and 32 Afghan female prisoners were let go, respectively. At least 84 children were freed with their mothers who were imprisoned as illegal immigrants.

A few days ago, a picture circulated on social media showed several children peering out from behind the bars in a jail. Multiple online users said the image is of a lock-up in Karachi, where Afghan refugee children are being held with their mothers.

However, after the picture went viral online and garnered the attention of international human rights organisations as well as the media, Sindh’s Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon denied in a press conference, held on December 30, that the picture was from a prison in Karachi.

“The picture is not of any jail in Sindh,” he said. The minister added that he had checked with local jail authorities and officials before making the statement.

However, contrary to the minister’s claim, the picture was from a city court lock-up in Karachi and was made by Samar Abbas – a legal associate and a human rights defender in Karachi – on December 28 at 11am.