ISLAMABAD – Pakistan would launch special flights to transport Afghans to the United Kingdom in a collaborative initiative with British authorities.
The Civil Aviation Authority along with British authorities has unveiled plans to airlift a specific number of Afghan refugees to London under Britain’s ‘resettlement scheme.’
A British High Commission delegation and senior officials of the Civil Aviation Authority held a meeting in this regard in Karachi and discussed the feasibility of transferring Afghan nationals to the UK.
The civil aviation delegation, led by Air Commodore (retd) Shahid Qadir, and the British High Commission’s delegation, led by its political counselor, made the decision to operate 12 flights commencing from the following week until the close of December to facilitate the transportation of 2000 Afghan refugees to the UK.
The British delegation expressed gratitude for the cooperation extended by Pakistani institutions and their readiness to facilitate these special flights.
Following the meeting, the Civil Aviation Authority issued a schedule outlining the evacuation of Afghan refugees for resettlement in the UK; the charter flight operations will continue until December, with a weekly departure bound for the UK.
In this regard, the inaugural flight with 200 Afghan refugees is slated to take off from Islamabad to the United Kingdom on Thursday and arrangements have been made at Islamabad Airport for this purpose.
Pakistan has set a November 1 deadline for all legal immigrants to depart the country, a decision that has raised concerns among various human rights organizations and the United Nations but the caretaker regime seems to have made a decision in this regard; the rights activists are calling on the government to reconsider its stance.
In a press conference, Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that action would be taken as per the law of the land against any of the Pakistani citizens if he is involved in illegal businesses and making huge properties by these illegal foreign nationals.
The minister also announced the establishment of a task force at the Ministry of Interior to launch and monitor these actions, adding that the safety and security of the people of Pakistan is the prime responsibility of the government.
Amid the crackdown, hundreds of Afghans have been arrested in the country’s largest city Karachi while scores were held in other cities.
