Pakistan Prepares Deportation Centers For Undocumented Migrants

In its latest step to implement the planned expulsion of all undocumented migrants, including 1.7 million Afghans, Pakistan is setting up deportation centres where people will be held during processing.

Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the southwestern Baluchistan government, said on Thursday that three deportation centres are being set up, including one in Quetta, the provincial capital.

Azam Khan, the caretaker chief minister for the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said three more centres are being set up there.

“It is a challenging task,” interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters at a news conference.

Authorities will begin tracking and arresting foreigners staying in the country without registration or documents from November 1 and sending them to the temporary centres.

Migrants leaving voluntarily are offered incentives and help. More than 60,000 Afghans have returned home since the crackdown was announced, according to Khan.

Anyone in the country irregularly should leave before the deadline to avoid arrest, Achakzai said._AlJazeera