Afghanistan Peace Campaign
Pakistani police have detained 13 Afghan doctors and one Afghan medical student in Punjab’s Multan city and transferred them to a deportation center, despite the group saying their visa applications have remained pending for nearly a year.
Pakistani police have detained 13 Afghan doctors and one Afghan medical student in Multan, Punjab province, and transferred them to a deportation center, as the detainees say their visa applications have remained unresolved for nearly a year.
The detainees stated on Tuesday, July 14, that police arrested them from a government hospital in Multan before transferring them to a detention facility in Attock, where they now face possible deportation. They said they had applied for new visas or visa extensions about a year ago but had yet to receive any final decision from Pakistani authorities.
According to the detainees, five of them had applied for entry visas while the remaining doctors sought extensions of their existing visas. They said Pakistani police and security agencies had repeatedly inspected their documents over the past year, yet their immigration cases remained pending without any official resolution.
The doctors expressed concern that they could be deported before completing their medical specialization and training programs. They appealed to both the Pakistani government and the Taliban authorities to intervene and allow them to remain in Pakistan until they finish their studies.
The arrests come as Pakistan continues to intensify its crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals, particularly Afghan citizens, with authorities expanding detention and deportation operations across the country in recent months.
Earlier this week, Punjab police also detained one Afghan doctor and at least 10 Afghan medical students enrolled in universities and teaching hospitals across the province. According to reports, 10 of the detainees were undergoing specialist training at Quaid-e-Azam Medical University and Bahawalpur Teaching Hospital when they were arrested, while another Afghan doctor, Noorullah, was detained at Sahiwal Teaching Hospital.
Although Pakistani authorities have not officially explained the arrests, the detainees said they were taken into custody after their visas expired. The successive arrests have heightened concerns among Afghan medical professionals and students in Pakistan, many of whom say they face uncertainty despite having applied to regularize their immigration status.