In a move driven ostensibly by security concerns due to a rise in terrorist attacks, Pakistan
on 1 November launched a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, mostly Afghan
refugees, resulting in a mass exodus. Pakistani authorities said that sweeps by security
personnel were conducted in the port city of Karachi, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, and
in various areas in the southwestern Baluchistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
provinces, which border Afghanistan.
According to the United Nations (UN) agencies, there are more than 2 million undocumented Afghans in Pakistan, at least 600,000 of who fled after the Taliban takeover in 2021. This latter group is likely to still be highly vulnerable
in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s new deportation policy, which
discounts the widely-accepted notions of propriety and human rights, has further strained
relations with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and raised international concerns,
especially among aid and human right organizations.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry had announced last month that all foreign nationals living in the
country without legal status had 28 days to leave voluntarily or face deportation, with
November 1 being set as the last day for undocumented immigrants to leave. In response
to this announcement, there has been a surge of Afghan refugees heading towards the
border crossings, desperately seeking to return to Afghanistan to evade potential
deportation. The exodus was particularly noticeable in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area, one of
Pakistan’s largest Afghan settlements. Some of the Afghans who have been ordered to
leave have spent decades in Pakistan, while some have never even been to Afghanistan.
Of the more than 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, the Pakistani government estimates
1.7 million are undocumented. Afghans have migrated to neighbouring Pakistan over
decades of conflict during the Soviet invasion, the following civil war, and the United States
(US)-led campaign after 9/11.
According to the Pakistan government, in the last two months around 200,000 Afghan
nationals have already left Pakistan ahead of the 1 November deadline. The Taliban’s
refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutaleb Haqqani said that the recent daily returnee
figures are three times higher than normal. A commissioner for Pakistan’s Khyber Tribal
District said more than 24,000 Afghans had crossed out of the country using the Torkham
border crossing on Wednesday alone, but Aid agencies have warned that conditions in the
Taliban-run country are “dire”, with temporary camps being prepared.
Describing the disturbing scenes that are today playing out at the border crossings, the
BBC’s Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davies wrote, “You know you are getting closer to
the border when the stream of trucks thickens. Faces old and young watch the road, sitting
atop piles of furniture, firewood, cookers and air conditioning units that judder precariously
as the vehicles weave through traffic on their way to Afghanistan. We meet Abdullah at a
petrol station in Punjab province. He has hired a truck to bring all 22 of his family members
out of the country – 20 of them were born in Pakistan, he says. ‘I initially came here when
the Russian war started, I used to work in a brick kiln as a labourer. There are fewer job
opportunities in Afghanistan’, he tells the BBC. ‘I am very sad about leaving my house. I
can’t express in words the pain I felt leaving it. Our house was made of mud, and we built
it ourselves. I planted many trees there. My neighbours and friends were in tears [when I
left] – It’s the cruel government that is making us leave’”. Davies also spoke to Abdullah’s
inconsolable wife, who lamented, “We have nothing. We didn’t do anything wrong; we
used to work as labour and feed the family”.
As these scenes were playing out, Pakistan started to arrest Afghans as the country began
its nationwide crackdown on Wednesday. The Pakistani government has said that the first
wave of deportations would target only those without any documentation. However, there
has been a stream of incidents in which people have been targeted despite having an
Afghan Citizen Card – an ID issued by the Pakistan government. The Pakistan
government’s own website explicitly says that this counts as an official document.
Abdullah, for example, told Davies that the police raided his house and arrested his sons
despite him holding a valid Afghan Citizen Card. He added, “The government says to go
back, even though we have these cards. This level of problem has never happened in the
past”.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which pointed out that because of
considerable delays in the registration process many new arrivals in Pakistan have not
been able to obtain recognized identity documents, have severely criticized Islamabad’s
deportation policy. Urging the Pakistan government to reverse its decision, human rights
groups have said that women and girls in particular would be put in “grave danger” if they
returned. The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern that
certain groups of people, including minorities, journalists and women, could be at greater
risk. Also, Afghanistan was pushed into economic collapse when the Taliban took over in
2021, and foreign funds that were being given to the previous regime were frozen. The
unemployment rate more than doubled from the period immediately before the Taliban
takeover to June 2023, according to the World Bank. UN agencies say around two-thirds
of the Afghan population is in need of humanitarian aid. Philippa Candler, UNHCR
representative in Pakistan, pointed out that “We’ve just had the earthquake which is
impacting heavily on the situation in Afghanistan, and on top of that, winter is approaching
so it’s not the best season to have people going back to a country that is already in a very
fragile situation. We certainly don’t want to see a worsening of the humanitarian situation
in Afghanistan as a result of large numbers of people being forced to return”.
Despite the criticism, Pakistan’s government has decided to forge ahead. Last week its
Interior Minister announced plans to open centers around the country to help process
detainees before deportation, saying that the elderly, children and women would be treated
with extra care. The government has insisted on its rights to follow its own laws, and a
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman sought to highlight Pakistan’s “record of the last forty years
in hosting millions of our Afghan brothers and sisters”, which she claimed “speaks for
itself”. Pakistan is not a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967 Protocol
relating to the Status of Refugees, instead, governing the entry and presence of refugees
under the country’s Foreigner’s Act that grants authorities the right to apprehend, detain,
and expel foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers lacking valid documentation.
The Pakistani crackdown has also worried those thousands of Afghans in Pakistan who
are waiting for relocation to the US under a special refugee program since fleeing the
Taliban takeover. US rules stipulated that these Afghans first had to relocate to a third
country, in this case Pakistan, for their applications to be processed. Most of the Afghans
awaiting relocation had worked for the US government, non-government organizations and
media organizations in the years before the Taliban returned to power and they fled fearing
persecution at home. On 31 October, a US official said that Washington’s priority was to
facilitate the safe and efficient resettlement and relocation in the US of more than 25,000
eligible Afghans who are presently in Pakistan.
Afghans awaiting relocation to the United Kingdom (UK) faced a similar predicament. Holly
Bancroft, The Independent’s Social Affairs Correspondent, informed that when Pakistani
authorities began their crackdown, Afghan families waiting in Pakistani hotels to be
relocated to the UK were warned by the British Foreign Office to hide indoors. One
message forwarded to the Afghan families from British Foreign Office officials read: “You
will be aware the GoP (Government of Pakistan) are arresting, detaining and deporting
those with no legal status in Pakistan, please do not take unnecessary risks by leaving
your hotel”. What the US, the UK, and other similarly placed Western countries have been
doing for these stranded and vulnerable Afghans over the past two-and-a-quarter years
since the Taliban took power is a question that many may conceivably ask.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on 1 November that Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres was “very concerned about this forced movement of people” and would like
Pakistan “not to go through with this”. Pakistan’s interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti
responded by posting on X that “Today, we said goodbye to 64 Afghan nationals as they
began their journey back home. This action is a testament to Pakistan’s determination to
repatriate any individuals residing in the country without proper documentation”. He had
earlier said there “will be no compromise against illegal refugees”, and that “We have the
data on who are staying illegally in Pakistan. We are going door to door, and we have
done geofencing. We will detain and deport them. We have arrested dozens across the
country so far, including in the capital”.
The Taliban regime has termed Pakistan’s decision to deport Afghan nationals as
“unacceptable”. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X that “The behaviour of
Pakistan towards Afghan refugees is unacceptable. Afghan refugees are not involved in
Pakistan’s security problems”. Without naming Pakistan, Mujahid also urged host countries
“to stop forcefully deporting Afghan refugees” and practice “tolerance based on Islamic
and neighborly manners”. In response to Pakistani minister Sarfraz Bugti’s allegations that
Afghan nationals had carried out 14 out of the 24 suicide bombings that occurred in
Pakistan this year, Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesman for the Taliban’s refugees and
repatriation ministry stressed to the AFP news agency that “We deny all these claims
because Afghans have migrated to other countries for their safety, their security. It’s
natural when someone migrates to another country for his safety, he would never want
insecurity there”. The deportations can now be expected to add another thick layer of
complexity to the already intricate relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban.
As mentioned before, the Pakistani move has generated concerns in the UN and among
human rights organizations. The UNHCR has warned that the deportation policy could
trigger a “human rights catastrophe”. Human Right Watch has accused Pakistan of
resorting to “threats, abuse, and detention to coerce Afghan asylum seekers without legal
status” to return to Afghanistan.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Senior Director, asserted on 31 October that “Amnesty International strongly reiterates its call to the Government of Pakistan to immediately reverse its decision to forcibly deport unregistered Afghan refugees ahead of the deadline set for tomorrow. Pakistan must meet its international legal obligations including the principle of non-refoulement and stop the crackdown against, and harassment of, Afghan refugees across the country. Afghan
refugees’ lives and rights are at stake due to the collective failure of the Pakistan
Government and the international community to share the responsibility for their
protection. This is simply unacceptable”. She added, “There is still time for Pakistan to act
swiftly today to avoid creating a crisis where families are rendered homeless, denied
access to livelihood and basic services and separated in the lead up to the harsh winter
months”.
Meanwhile, three aid organizations, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee
Council and the International Rescue Committee informed that many people fleeing
Pakistan’s crackdown were arriving in Afghanistan in poor condition. The agencies said in
a joint statement that “The conditions in which they arrive in Afghanistan are dire, with
many having endured arduous journeys spanning several days, exposed to the elements,
and often forced to part with their possessions in exchange for transportation”. The
agencies said they feared for people’s survival and reintegration into Afghan society.
Pakistan has quoted the upsurge in terror attacks that the country is reeling from as the
reason for mercilessly throwing out Afghan refugees. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, in particular, has been cited as an organization that enjoys
the Taliban’s support in Afghanistan. When the Taliban seized control of Kabul, Islamabad
had hoped that the new rulers, who Pakistani had created and propped up, would quell the
TTP militants’ ability to launch terror attacks within Pakistan from their Afghan hideouts.
However, these hopes were dashed as the TTP not only remained active, but also gained
fresh momentum following the Taliban’s victory. The surge in TTP activities heightened
insecurity in Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.
Many, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), believe that
Pakistan’s terror-related accusation against Afghan refugees is just an excuse. They insist
that the poor refugees should not have to bear the price for Pakistan’s inability to secure
itself. The HRCP stressed in a statement that “most of these refugees are likely poor,
vulnerable individuals who should be provided access to legal counsel immediately”. It
added, “Their status as unauthorised refugees does not mean they are not entitled to
protection, nor should they bear the brunt of Pakistan’s security concerns. The next
government must seriously consider signing the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967
Protocol relating to the status of refugees”.
Pakistan, whose military establishment has promoted and sponsored cross-border
terrorism as an instrument of State policy through most of the country’s existence, should
not now be allowed to use hundreds of thousands of very poor and highly vulnerable
Afghan refugees, who have literally nothing to do with terrorism,