HRW criticizes Pakistan’s mistreatment of Afghans, claims of “sexual harassment” of Afghan migrant women

Pakistani police are facing accusations of unlawfully detaining, beating, extorting and sexually harassing Afghan refugees as part of a coercive campaign aimed at compelling them to return to their home country.

“Police and other officials have carried out mass detentions, seized property and livestock, and destroyed identity documents to expel thousands of Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers,” U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Afghan women told Human Rights Watch that Pakistani police had sometimes sexually harassed some Afghan women and girls and threatened them with sexual assault.”

Amnesty International has also reported on the trauma experienced by refugee women during police night raids.

“Many women are sleeping fully covered [in veils] because they are afraid of nighttime police raids by male police officers,” the U.K.-based rights organization said, quoting a female human rights lawyer.

Afghans in need of visa extensions in Pakistan are reportedly required to pay fines exceeding $800, while others have reported extortion.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk has expressed alarm at these reports and urged Islamabad to cease the deportation campaign.