Hear their voices: Afghan refugees continue to be deported from Pakistan

Following Pakistan's stern ultimatum on 3 October, demanding departure by 1 November, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, mostly women and children, have returned to their war-torn homeland, with many still detained in centres labeled as 'holding facilities.'

Caravans of deported refugees have been streaming back towards Afghanistan on wheels and foot through the Torkham and Spin Boldak crossings between the two countries. Over 170,000 of the estimated 1.7 million undocumented Afghan migrants in Pakistan (primarily women and children) have already left or got deported back to Afghanistan during the first week following the deadline.

"They [the Pakistani police] arrested my father and forced me, my mother and siblings back to Afghanistan,'' 10-year-old Bilal told FairPlanet from a temporary tent refugee camp in the southern Kandahar province.

In the build-up to the deadline, mass arrests of the refugees lacking legal documents saw scores of people, like Bilal’s father, arrested by law enforcement agencies across Pakistan. 

"Afghanistan is our homeland, but I had never been here"

The initial influx of Afghan refugees sought refuge in Pakistan during the 1980s when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, prompting millions to flee. The second wave arrived during the 1990s civil war and subsequent ascent of the Taliban to power.

The most recent wave of refugees is comprised of people fearing persecution and economic challenges in Afghanistan following the Taliban's resurgence in 2021 following the US withdrawal.

Citing security concerns and economic hardships, the government in Pakistan gave undocumented Afghan refugees only a few weeks’ time till 1 November to leave the country or face legal actions. 

As the deadline approached, Bilal’s family was forced to leave despite receiving no news of their father. "We came [to Afghanistan] with my mother through Spin Boldak. We can’t sleep at night because of fear. There is not enough food or water during the day," said the minor returnee.

Similar scenes unfold at the northern crossing point, Torkham, where hundreds of trucks carrying the belongings of deportees wait for days as Pakistani authorities continue record-keeping efforts.

Spending three days and nights on the truck before crossing over to Afghanistan, Rafi Uullah, a young boy hailing from the northern Kunduz province, said he was born and brought up in Pakistan as a refugee child.

"Afghanistan is our homeland, but I had never been here before," he told FairPlanet. "I heard our province is extremely cold at this time [of the year]."

Ullah and his siblings were studying in Pakistan’s Punjab province until school authorities expelled them upon learning of the government’s deadline. 

This action aligned with the government's directive to all public and private entities and individuals in Pakistan, urging them to contribute to the expulsion of undocumented Afghan refugees and support their evacuation from properties and neighbourhoods.

'holding centers'

Lehaz Ali, a Pakistan-based journalist, told the local Dawn news platform that prior to their deportation, refugees were initially kept by security forces at centres that were previously reserved for suspected terrorists. These centers are now referred to as 'holding centers' to mitigate the perception of detaining refugees.

"There are three holding centers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and surprisingly the media is not allowed to see these holding centers, but I did manage to visit one such center and have a chat with them," Ali said. "The biggest problems the Afghan refugees are facing in Pakistan is the persecution and extortion by the police in Pakistan."

In an interview with FairPlanet a week after the detention and deportation of refugees, Ali mentioned that the extensive queues and prolonged waiting periods have somewhat improved.

"Women and children have now been exempted from registration before they leave for Afghanistan so that has helped clear the backlog," he said. The senior Pakistani journalist added, however, that numerous reports about persecution and harassment of refugees by Pakistani police continue to emerge occasionally.

And as Pakistan continued to disregard calls by local and international human rights bodies, the number of deportees continued to climb steadily.

"In the past few days, the process of forced return of migrants has increased, and over the past two days, nearly 5,000 families from Torkham and nearly 4,000 families from Spin Boldak have been returning from Pakistan," Abdur Rahman Rashid, deputy head of the Ministry of Migrants Affairs in Afghanistan, told FairPlanet. "Most of the returnees are children and women."

Unfolding humanitarian crisis

Considering the severe winter conditions and numerous humanitarian crises confronting Afghanistan, rights groups have been advocating for a suspension of these deportations and urging for initiatives to aid in the relief and rehabilitation of those already expelled.

"Deportations without individualized determinations of personal circumstances, including any mass deportations, would amount to refoulement in violation of international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Pakistan is a State party, and of international refugee law," the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a statement in late October.

In recent weeks, Afghanistan's third-largest city, Herat, experienced several deadly earthquakes that claimed thousands of lives, leaving many more without homes and in desperate need. This disaster compounded the challenges posed by a debilitating drought, rising unemployment and a decline in humanitarian aid. The arrival of refugees from Pakistan in these dire circumstances is anticipated to further exacerbate the hardships faced by the people of Afghanistan.

Image by Muhammad Muzamil.