A deadline-imposed Pakistan’s government for undocumented Afghans to leave the country expired at the end of February.

Anyone overstaying that deadline faces monthly fines of $100 (capped at $800).

Pakistan estimates that more than 1.7 million Afghan nationals have long lived in the country without documents, with the majority arriving in different waves since the Soviet invasion in 1979.

International rights organisations say most of the undocumented feared arrest.

Nearly 600,000 Afghan refugees have been either deported or returned to Afghanistan within the last three months.

For those who stay, many have reported challenges.

Islamabad blames the refugees for a recent spike in attacks by armed groups, most of them carried out by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as Pakistani Taliban because of its ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban.

Amnesty International accused Pakistan of using Afghan refugees as “political pawns”.

Aljazeera.