Tens of thousands of Afghans have left Pakistan since the latest wave of deportations began in early April.
More than 127,000 Afghans have returned to their homeland since the start of the month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday.
The majority left the country of their own accord in the face of the threat of deportation, the agency added. Around 26,000 were deported.
Since the expiry of a deadline for voluntary departure at the end of March, Pakistani authorities have begun arresting refugees and transferring them to deportation centres.
In the long term, the government in Islamabad is planning to deport 3 million Afghans.
Uncertain future under Taliban
Many Afghans cried when the latest deportations were announced.
“Pakistan was my home, I was born here,” a family head, Mohammed Razoul, told dpa at the Torkham border crossing to Afghanistan.
For decades, millions of Afghans have sought protection from war and instability in neighbouring Pakistan.
After the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, tens of thousands fled across the border for fear of revenge by the country’s hardline Islamist rulers.
Pakistan began the mass deportation of unregistered Afghan refugees at the end of 2023. According to official figures, almost 900,000 Afghans have since left Pakistan.
The campaign was initially aimed at unregistered refugees. However, Islamabad has already announced its intention to also deport registered refugees in future.
“Afghans seeking refuge and asylum in Pakistan after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 are particularly at risk,” warned Amnesty International.
Afghan refugees at the Torkham border crossing. Pakistan has deported more than 860,000 Afghan migrants since September 2023, with most of them returning via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Data from the International Organization for Migration indicates that more than half of these individuals crossed into Afghanistan through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Afghanistan’s Khaama Press news agency on Sunday. Nabila Lalee/dpa
DJ Kamal Mustafa
I’m DJ Kamal Mustafa, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of EMEA Tribune, a digital news platform that focuses on critical stories from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. With a deep passion for investigative journalism, I’ve built a reputation for delivering exclusive, thought-provoking reports that highlight the region’s most pressing issues.
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