The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published its third report on the security situation in Pakistan with the aim to provide relevant and up-to-date information that shape the decisions around granting asylum to Pakistani nationals. This includes an overview of security trends, the impact of the violence on the civilian population and the state’s ability to secure law and order.
Last year, Pakistan ranked in the top five of countries of origin in the EU countries with a total of 32,000 applications. The numbers remain very consistent this year. Pakistan has seen an overall decrease in violence and casualties in 2017 and 2018. However, security operations and armed clashes still occur in four provinces where militants continued to conduct attacks in 2017 and 2018, including suicide attacks, sectarian-related violence and targeted killings. In the run-up to the general elections held in July 2018, a number of violent incidents and some major attacks occurred throughout the country.
Earlier this year, Germany rejected a number of Pakistani asylum seekers for the lack of supporting documentation. The number of failed asylum seekers who could not be repatriated from Germany in the instances of insufficient evidence jumped 71% in 2017 compared to 2016. Around 65,000 asylum seekers were granted temporary permission to stay in the country last year because they could not be sent back to Pakistan due to missing identity papers. Germany reports that the largest numbers of those who could not be repatriated in 2017 were from India (5,743), Pakistan (4,943), Afghanistan (3,915) and Russia (3,828). Around 3,000 applications were registered as having “unclear” nationality including Pakistanis and Kurds.
