Rights group: Pakistan forcing Afghan refugees home

In a scathing indictment of Pakistan's treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charged Monday that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty, ABC news reported.

It also said that a $400 stipend the United Nations refugee agency gives to refugees who return to Afghanistan is tantamount to a bribe to convince reluctant Afghans to leave Pakistan.

"The exodus amounts to the world's largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times," the Human Rights Watch report says.

Both the UN and Pakistan denied the allegations. In an interview, Indrika Ratwatte, Pakistan's country representative for the UN refugee agency, said there was police harassment and arrests of Afghan refugees in mid-2016, particularly in the border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it was ended and refugees who returned, went home voluntarily.

Yet last year, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told refugees in Pakistan to come home, promising them shelter and opportunities. 

About 380,000 registered Afghan refugees returned to their homeland along with an estimated 250,000 unregistered refugees who were living in Pakistan without legal documents, Ratwatte said.

Source: MENA