Around 44,000 Afghans are still stuck in limbo in Pakistan nearly three years after the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan. They are waiting to be granted asylum in various Western countries that they have been promised to be allowed to enter.
Many of the Afghans who were promised relocation abroad had ties to the foreign-backed government and are afraid of reprisals from Taliban authorities.
Most countries closed their embassies when Kabul fell in August 2021. Many Afghan migrants were left stranded in neighboring Pakistan while embassies in Islamabad processed their visa applications.
Around 9,000 Afghans residing in Pakistan have been accepted by Australia, as well as 6,000 by Canada, 3,000 by Germany, and 1,000 by the United Kingdom – but most are still waiting to be allowed to leave for their respective countries.
We have urged them to expedite the process of approval and issuance of visas for these countries, for these individuals, so that they can be relocated as soon as possible, says Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloc at a press conference.
Around 600,000 Afghans fled to Pakistan when the extremist Islamist Taliban movement regained power in Afghanistan in 2021.
