Putting lives at risk
As Pakistan is going tough on Afghan citizens directing them to head back to their native country, many rights groups have raised concerns that lives are being put at risk as they fear reprisal by Taliban militia against these afghan citizens.
Pakistan has set a March 31 deadline for the deportation of all foreigners living illegally in the country and most of them are Afghans.
While the authorities in Pakistan are unrelenting over their decision, the move has put several thousand Afghan nationals at risk. The issue has got so complex that many rights groups have taken up the issue of Afghan refugees as they too fear that these nations are at risk of persecution by the Taliban besides, they face dire economic conditions.
The Human Rights watch (HRW) appeal came a month after the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said that Pakistan has stepped up arrests of Afghan citizens in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi for forced expulsion.
However, Pakistan has dismissed the allegation by Kabul, saying that the authorities were only trying to facilitate conditions for the swift return of Afghans to their home country.
Notably, more than 500,000 Afghans who fled the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 have been living without papers in Pakistan, thousands of them waiting for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere.
There are also around 1.45 million Afghan refugees, registered with the UN refugee agency, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country.
Last July, Pakistan extended the stay of refugees registered with UNHCR until June, saying they won’t be arrested or deported at least until the extension expires.
In January, US President Donald Trump paused American refugee programmes for at least three months and since then, around 20,000 Afghans who were awaiting resettlement in Pakistan are now in limbo. Afghans waiting for relocation to the United States have also urged Trump to restore the refugee programme to end their ordeal.
HRW has said that the human rights situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Notably, more than 800,000 Afghans have returned home or have been expelled by force from Pakistan since 2023, according to the International Organisation for Migration, a UN agency that tracks migration.
More than 70 per cent of those returning to Afghanistan have been women and children, including girls of secondary school age and women who will no longer have access to education.
Ironically, the Afghan refugee crisis is a pressing global issue, with an estimated 23.7 million Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance. This crisis has been unfolding for over four decades, driven by conflict and instability in Afghanistan.
The situation is dire, with many Afghans facing acute food insecurity, human rights violations, and economic instability. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable, with their rights further restricted by the de facto authorities⁴.
Though the international community has been working to provide assistance, with organizations like UNHCR providing critical support to refugees and IDPs. However, more needs to be done to address the root causes of this crisis and ensure the safety and dignity of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and elsewhere.
The Afghans have witnessed huge destruction and instability over the past many decades and putting more lives at risk by pressurising them to return back to their country will in no way help solve the crisis.
