Pakistan's deportation drive and new cross-border travel policy will likely worsen security threats in the country and challenge stability in Afghanistan and potentially the broader region. Security forces have been conducting raids across Pakistan over the past week as part of a nationwide deportation drive that commenced after the government's deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country expired on Nov. 1. Afghan nationals make up the majority of migrants in Pakistan, and the government estimates that some 150,000-200,000 of the 1.7 million undocumented Afghans in Pakistan have either left voluntarily or been repatriated since the deadline was first announced by Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Oct. 3. Local reports claim Pakistani security forces have also arrested and deported some Afghan nationals who were residing in Pakistan legally. Migrants are being held at so-called holding centers established nationwide to process those to be imminently deported, and Pakistan has opened...
