Pakistan takes up forced evictions of 1.4 million Afghan refugees despite the UN concerns

Pakistan authorities have resumed forced deportations to Afghan refugees after the federal government refused to extend a key deadline for their stay, officials announced on Monday.

The decision affects approximately 1.4 million Afghans with proof cards (POR), whose legal status expired at the end of June. Many had hoped for an extension of one year to settle personal affairs, such as the sale of goods or conclusion affairs, before returning to Afghanistan.

In addition to POR card holders, around 800,000 Afghans hold Afghan citizen cards. The police said they are also living in the country illegally and are detained before deportations in eastern Punjab, southwest Balutchistan and the South Sindh province.

Monday’s decision aroused criticism from the High Commissioner of the United Nations Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Agency for Refugees.

At least 1.2 million Afghans were forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, according to a June report from the UNHCR. Repatriations on such a scale have the potential to destabilize the fragile situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban government came to power in 2021.

A government notification of July 31 seen by the Associated Press confirms Pakistan’s decision to repatriate all Afghan nationals holding the expired cards. He indicates that the Afghans without valid passports and Pakistani visas are in the country illegally and must return to their homeland by virtue of the Pakistani laws on immigration.

Pakistan police have the Afghans to transport them to border passages, according to two government and security officials who spoke under the guise of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly.

They said there was no massive arrest and that the police were invited to go from home to home and make random checks to illegally hold foreigners living in the country.

“Yes, Afghan refugees illegally living in Pakistan are dismissed in a worthy way,” said Shakeel Khan, a commissioner for Afghan refugees in the northwest of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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Freshta Abbasi, an Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch, based in the United States, said that Afghan migrants – documented or not – are afraid of leaving their homes in Pakistan, after information reporting arbitrary arrests and extortion, because they are faced with a deadline for government on March 31 to leave the country.

The last operation is the most important step to date under the federal government orders in Islamabad, he said.
Rehmat Ullah, 35, an Afghan, said that his family had emigrated northwest of the city of Pakistan in the city of Peshawar decades and is now preparing to go home.

“I have five children and my concern is that they are missing their studies,” he said. “I was born here, my children were born here and now we are going back,” he said.

Millions of people have fled in Pakistan over the past four decades to escape war, political troubles and economic difficulties. Driving with renewed expulsion follows a national repression launched in 2023 targeting foreigners illegally living in Pakistan.

The Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the campaign, has not immediately commented.

Qaiser Khan Afridi, spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency, expressed his deep concern in the face of government’s recent actions.

“Discarding him people in this way is equivalent to reference and a violation of the international obligations of a state,” said Afridi in a press release, urging Pakistan to adopt a “human approach to ensure voluntary, progressive and worthy return of Afghans” and congratulated the country to accommodate millions of Afghan refugees for more than 40 years.

“We call on the government to stop the forced return and ensure a process of progressive, voluntary and worthy repatriation,” said Afridi. “Such a massive and hasty return could compromise the life and freedom of Afghan refugees, while risking instability not only in Afghanistan but in the region.”