Pakistan is gearing up to initiate the second stage of a contentious scheme to repatriate Afghan refugees without proper documentation back to Afghanistan.

Starting from Sunday, authorities are anticipated to forcibly remove over 800,000 Afghans from the country, following the expulsion of about 541,000 individuals in the initial phase conducted in November last year.

If the refugees do not depart voluntarily, they will face arrest and deportation.

Prior to the first repatriation phase, the Pakistani government asserted that there were roughly 4.4 million Afghan refugees, with an estimated 1.73 million lacking proper documentation.

The government has justified the crackdown by citing security concerns and economic challenges.

This deportation directive coincided with a significant surge in armed assaults across Pakistan, with the government attributing the attacks to groups and individuals based in Afghanistan—a claim refuted by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Philippa Candler, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islamabad, emphasized that Pakistan should assess the backgrounds of the undocumented Afghans before expelling them, as many require international protection.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reported from the Khazana refugee camp in Peshawar city, where about 1,300 Afghan families reside, highlighting the refugees' pleas for additional time from the international community and the Pakistani government to leave in a dignified manner.

Pakistan, a non-signatory to the 1951 UN convention safeguarding refugee rights, lacks the necessary domestic legislation to protect refugees and establish procedures for determining the status of asylum seekers within its borders.

Amnesty International has cautioned about the potential risks of persecution that returning refugees may face in Afghanistan.