Pakistan will consider expelling hundreds of thousands more Afghans in a continued clampdown

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan will consider a plan to expel hundreds of thousands more Afghans who have been living in the country for years, the foreign ministry said Thursday, the latest in a monthslong government clampdown on undocumented migrants.

The plan is still in the works, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters — and the government may ultimately reject it.

It would mark the “second phase” of the “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” and it would involve persons who had been given identification documents known as “Afghan citizen cards” to legalize their stay in Pakistan for a limited time.

“At this stage, I do not have a date to share with you,” she said at a weekly news briefing in the capital, Islamabad, adding that an announcement about the action would be made “at an appropriate time.”

Pakistan's crackdown on undocumented migrants has drawn sweeping criticism from the United Nations, aid agencies and human rights groups.

Since the deportations started, an estimated 600,000 Afghans have gone back to Afghanistan. After forcing thousands back daily, the deportations slowed down and appeared to halt in recent months.

On Wednesday, following a visit by the U.N. refugee agency chief, Filippo Grandi, Islamabad announced it has extended the stay of 1.45 million Afghan refugees residing in the country.

During his visit, Grandi welcomed what he described as the Pakistan government ’s suspension of the deportations.

However, Baloch denied that was the case and said there has been no suspension in the anti-migrant crackdown that targets those without valid papers. The deportations only involve those in Pakistan illegally — and they are being carried out in a “humane manner,” Baloch said.

She insisted Afghan refugees living here need not worry as their stay has now been expended.

Amnesty International said Thursday it welcomed Islamabad's decision to extend one-year stays. Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, the group's regional researcher for South Asia, urged Pakistan to “extend this lifeline to all Afghan refugees in Pakistan."

She also urged Pakistan to formally suspend the "Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” and top all forcible returns of Afghans in the country.

Pakistan has long hosted an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country. More than half a million others escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, with thousands waiting in Pakistan for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere.

Baloch also urged the international community to expedite the process for the relocation of thousands of Afghans who fled the Taliban takeover, most of who are still in Pakistan, she said.

These Afghans have been desperately waiting for their visa applications to be processed so they could leave for the United States, Canada, United Kington, Germany, Australia, Italy and several other countries.

The delay in the resettlement has left these Afghans in a vulnerable position, contending with economic hardship and lack of access to health, education and other services in Pakistan.

Baloch's remarks appeared to catch Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation off guard.

Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, a spokesperson with the refugee ministry, said they had heard through official channels that the deportations have stopped. He said no Afghan refugees have been forcibly deported from Pakistan — whether they had proper papers or not — and that there were no reports of arrests in the neighboring country in the past 24 hours.

Haqqani appealed on the Islamabad government to give Afghans enough time to leave Pakistan in an orderly fashion and that there be no forced deportations.

“Our second request is for our Afghan brothers to return to their country voluntarily,” he said. “Now there is peace in the country ... the refugees should return to their country.”

In this photo released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, left, meets with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. The head of the U.N. refugee agency met with Sharif in the capital, Islamabad to discuss problems faced by the Afghan refugees, who have been living in the country in a state of uncertainty since last year when Islamabad started expelling foreigners, officials said. (Prime Minister Office via AP)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied the latest appeal by a man who has been on death row for 30 years after he was convicted of killing two college students.

The decision could clear the way for the state to set an execution date for Willie Jerome Manning, but his attorney said Tuesday that his legal team will seek a rehearing.

The court's majority wrote in a 5-4 ruling Monday that Manning “has had his days in court.” Dissenting justices wrote that a trial court should hold a hearing about a witness who wants to recant his testimony against Manning, 56, who has spent more than half his life in prison.

Manning's attorneys have filed multiple appeals since he was convicted in 1994 on two counts of capital murder in the December 1992 killings of Mississippi State University students Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller. Their bodies were found in rural Oktibbeha County, and Miller’s car was missing. The car was found the next morning. Prosecutors said Manning was arrested after he tried to sell items belonging to the victims.

Krissy Nobile, Manning’s attorney and director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, said Tuesday that the justices' majority ruling ignores "newly discovered evidence with the recantation of several key witnesses," including one who said in a sworn statement that she was paid $17,500 for fraudulent testimony.

“With the witness recantations and debunked forensic science, there is no evidence against Mr. Manning,” Nobile said. “There is no DNA, fibers, fingerprints, or other physical evidence linking Mr. Manning to the murders or the victims.”

Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote the majority opinion rejecting Manning's request for a trial court hearing to determine whether witness Earl Jordan had lied.

“Petitioner has had more than a full measure of justice,” Randolph wrote of Manning. “Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler have not. Their families have not. The citizens of Mississippi have not. Finality of justice is of great import in all cases.”

Nobile responded: “What measure of justice is served if the wrong man is put to death?”

Justice James Kitchens wrote the dissent.

“Today the Court perverts its function as an appellate court and makes factual determinations that belong squarely within the purview of the circuit court judge,” Kitchens wrote.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled decades ago that when a witness recants testimony, “the defendant/petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the witness lied at trial or on his affidavit,” Kitchens wrote.

Manning has maintained his innocence and sought to have evidence in his case reexamined.

The latest appeal was based partly on Jordan saying he wanted to recant his testimony that while he and Manning were jailed together in Oktibbeha County, Manning had confessed to killing Steckler and Miller.

Jordan said in a sworn statement that he gave false testimony against Manning in hopes of himself receiving favorable treatment from Dolph Bryan, who was then sheriff of Oktibbeha County. Jordan wrote that he was “afraid to tell the truth” while Bryan was sheriff. Bryan left the job in January 2012.

In 2013, shortly before Manning was scheduled to be executed, the U.S. Justice Department said there had been errors in FBI agents’ testimony about ballistics tests and hair analysis in the case. Manning’s attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to stop the lethal injection, and justices voted 8-1 to delay the execution to allow the testing of evidence.

Manning’s attorneys asked an Oktibbeha County circuit judge for permission to send items to a more specialized lab. The judge denied that request, and the ruling was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2022.

FILE - This April 2, 2019, booking photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP, File)