Deadline: Islamabad asks 800,000 Afghans to leave Pakistan by March 31

New Delhi: Islamabad has set March 31, 2025, as the official deadline for Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders to leave Pakistan voluntarily as part of a plan to repatriate all illegal foreigners, the media reported on Saturday.

Reports said that ACC card holders staying in Islamabad and Rawalpindi would be sent back to Afghanistan as part of a multiple relocation plan for Afghan migrants, including those awaiting resettlement in third countries.

This decision came after frequent conflicts between the two neighbors over the issue of terrorism and cross-border disputes. It will impact around 800,000 Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan who were documented in the settlement and relocation plan, as well as the Afghan immigrants who are residing illegally.

This program was started on November 1, 2023, to repatriate all illegal immigrants, including the Afghans.
Individuals staying in Pakistan will have to fulfil all legal formalities and abide by Pakistan’s Constitution, the reports said.

Pakistan has been home to millions of Afghans. Most of them moved across the porous border in the 1980s, when the former USSR forces were in Afghanistan.