Not a single Afghan given ‘refugee status’ since Taliban takeover — Pakistani interior minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has not given “refugee status” to a single Afghan since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday, a day before an August 31 deadline for the United States military to leave Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans have been camped outside the Kabul airport since the Taliban took over the country, hoping to flee. There are reports of hundreds more trying to exit the war-torn country through its borders.
Pakistan has been leading the efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan and has airlifted hundreds of foreign diplomats, journalists and aid workers, thought it has said it will not take any refugees. There are currently 1.4 registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, according to UN figures.
“Not a single person, as an interior minister I am saying, is given refugee status so far,” Ahmed told a news conference in Islamabad. “Those who come to Chaman on Tazkira [Afghan identity document] return in the evening, but Pakistan has not taken in a single refugee so far.”
He said 1,627 transit passengers leaving Afghanistan had passed through immigration so far, while another 2,192 had entered Pakistan via the Torkham border crossing.
“The visas we have issued now are valid for 21-30 days, while around 600-700 people didn’t ask for a visa,” the minister said. “Their sponsor companies have been taking them from the airport.”
About the influx of refugees on the borders, Ahmed said Pakistan’s armed forces were present on every inch of the border and doing their job.
“Our forces have fenced the 2690km border and are focused on everyone coming toward the border,” Ahmed said.

Not a single Afghan given ‘refugee status’ since Taliban takeover — Pakistani interior minister