Pakistan is preparing to launch the second phase of a controversial initiative aimed at repatriating undocumented Afghan Deportations. Starting from Sunday, authorities are expected to expel over 800,000 Afghans, following the deportations of approximately 541,000 individuals in the first phase last November. Those who do not leave voluntarily face the threat of arrest and removal.
Prior to the initial repatriation phase, the Pakistani government reported a total of nearly 4.4 million Afghan deportations, with an estimated 1.73 million lacking proper documentation. The government has justified these measures by citing security concerns and economic challenges.
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The decision to enforce deportations coincides with a surge in violent incidents across Pakistan, which authorities attribute to groups and individuals operating from Afghanistan. However, these allegations have been refuted by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.
Philippa Candler, the UNHCR representative in Islamabad, told that Pakistan should consider the profiles of undocumented Afghans before expelling them, as many require international protection. “They’re refugees, not involved in terrorism. They’re people who fled and need protection,” Candler said, emphasizing that any Afghan nationals involved in terrorism should be dealt with separately.
Reporting from the Khazana refugee camp in Peshawar, which hosts around 1,300 Afghan families, noted that the refugees have appealed to the international community and the Pakistani government for more time to leave with dignity. “They complain of nighttime raids and being forced to leave in miserable conditions,” Hyder said, highlighting the difficulty of leaving a country after a lifetime spent there.
Pakistan is not a signatory to the 1951 UN convention on refugee rights and lacks domestic laws and procedures to protect refugees or determine their status. Amnesty International has warned of the risk of persecution for refugees returning to Afghanistan.
