Forced to flee Pakistan, Afghan migrants claim they have nothing

 Forced to flee Pakistan, Afghan migrants claim they have nothing

As part of a broad crackdown on foreign people it claims are in the country illegally, Pakistan has begun to arrest Afghans.

In the last two months, thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan have returned to their homeland. After living in Pakistan for many years, many of them claim they have nowhere to return to, while others express fear at the thought of returning to the Taliban regime.

If the flow of trucks intensifies, you are moving nearer the border. On top of stacks of furniture, firewood, stoves, and air conditioners that judder dangerously as the cars zigzag through traffic on their journey to Afghanistan, faces both young and elderly watch the road.

We meet Abdullah in the Punjab province at a gas station. Twenty of the 22 members of his family were reportedly born in Pakistan, therefore he has hired a truck to transport them all out of the nation.

"I first arrived here when the Russian War broke out, and I was a laborer at a brick kiln. Afghanistan has few work chances, he told the BBC.

"Leaving my residence makes me extremely sad. I have no words to describe the anguish I felt leaving it. We had constructed our own mud hut ourselves. There, I planted a lot of trees. When I left, my friends and neighbors were in tears. The government is to blame for forcing us to leave."

The Pakistani administration claims that over 200,000 Afghan people have already departed the country in the previous two months, ahead of the deadline of November 1. Spokesman for the Taliban refugee ministry Abdul Mutaleb Haqqani claims that the latest daily returnee counts are three times higher than average.

The administration clarifies that the program is exclusively directed at those who are in the nation unlawfully and states that the initial wave of deportations would target those without any papers. The United Nations refugee organization, UNHCR, has further guaranteed that those holding refugee certificates would not face any repercussions from the government.

Although Abdullah has an Afghan Citizen Card, a government-issued ID, he claims he has been singled out for attack. He flashes a plastic wallet and displays all of his family's cards. On the official government website, this is recognized as legitimate documentation.

In spite of this, he claims, the police stormed his home and took his boys into custody. This could not be independently confirmed by the BBC.

"Even if we have these cards, the government says we should return. This kind of issue has never occurred before, according to Abdullah.

We go inside the truck and see Abdullah's wife, children, and grandkids seated on top of tarpaulin bags filled with stuff. She can't stop weeping, but she didn't give us her name.

She adds, "We have nothing," while sobbing. "We didn't do anything wrong; we used to work as labour and feed the family."

A much criticized strategy

Approximately 1.7 million of the four million Afghan migrants and refugees living in Pakistan are unauthorized, according to the authorities. Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, has seen people fleeing over the border in search of safety for forty years, beginning with the Soviet invasion in 1979 and continuing until the Taliban's more recent return in 2021.

Human rights organizations have criticized the deportation strategy. Amnesty International, for example, has noted that many recent immigrants to Pakistan have been unable to get recognized identification papers due to significant delays in the registration procedure.

Afghans waiting for a UK visa as Pakistan promises to remove migrants

Pakistan demands the departure of 1.7 million Afghans

It said that women and girls in particular would be in "grave danger" if they returned, and it urged the government to change its mind.

The UNHCR is especially worried that women, journalists, and members of minority groups would be in danger. They claim that government representatives have given them guarantees that these groups won't be made to return.

The organization thinks that by providing slips to those who have sought them for assistance, the government would take notice of them. While some people we encounter presumably show us their printed slips, Pakistani authorities have not yet formally recognized them.

The government of Pakistan has moved on in spite of the criticism. The country's interior minister said last week that centers will be established to assist in the processing of inmates before to their deportation, with special attention paid to the elderly, women, and children.

The government has defended its authority to uphold its own laws in response to challenges. Furthermore, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said that its "record of the last forty years in hosting millions of our Afghan brothers and sisters speaks for itself."

Pakistan has been asked to reconsider its "unacceptable" action by the Taliban regime. The Taliban government will work to provide employment for returnees, while the Afghan Ministry of Refugees plans to register them and place them in makeshift camps.

However, concerns have been raised regarding the potential effects of thousands of deportees on an already fragile nation's economy.

When the Taliban gained control of the country in 2021, international funding that had been provided to the previous government was stopped, which caused Afghanistan's economy to collapse. According to the World Bank, from just before the Taliban took power and June 2023, the jobless rate more than doubled.

Approximately two thirds of the population, according to UN agencies, need humanitarian assistance.

"We've just had the earthquake and these is impacting heavily on the current circumstances in Afghanistan, and on top of that, winter is upon us so it's not the best season to have humanity going back to a country that is already in a very uncertain situation," says Philippa Candler, the UNHCR a good representation in Pakistan.

"We certainly are not interested in to see a worsening of the humanitarian problem in Afghanistan as a result of large numbers of people having been compelled to return."

Although the Taliban leadership declared an amnesty for anyone who had cooperated with foreign forces, many of the people we met with were still quite afraid of what expulsion might entail.

According to a UN study from earlier this year, hundreds of former military personnel and government officials are believed to have died in spite of the Taliban's promises of amnesty.

An activist lady informed us over the phone that she had attempted to conceal when she learned that the Pakistani police had their information. To give themselves some time, she stated that several of her friends had attempted to relocate to villages.

Rehman*, an additional Afghan native, informs us that he served in the Afghan military but fled the nation after claiming to have been beaten by Taliban fighters after they took control of the country.

"If I go back to Afghanistan, we face death," he declares. "There is a risk to our life. Our only hope while we are here is that UNHCR will manage to find a solution."

Rehman's little boy cuddles up on his lap while we sit, periodically gazing up as he flips through his father's phone. His daughter stands to the side and observes intently.

"My concerns are for my children's future. We don't have any legal paperwork, therefore my daughter can't further her education," he claims.

"We are here without any mission and unknown future.