Displaced Twice: The Human Cost of Pakistan’s Forced Repatriation of Afghan Refugees

At the Torkham border—where Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa meets Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province—the usual bustle of trade and travel has been replaced by scenes of quiet despair. Exhausted and anxious, tens of thousands of Afghan families are making their way back to a homeland many fled decades ago—or have never seen. This is not a journey of hope, but of compulsion.

Thousands of Afghans in Pakistan, including those who sought refuge after Kabul’s fall to the Taliban in August 2021, now face an uncertain future under the government’s revived Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan. Restarted in late 2023, the policy has triggered a sweeping crackdown on undocumented Afghan refugees. In April alone, over 144,000 Afghans crossed back into Afghanistan—nearly 30,000 of them deported. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directive has extended enforcement to major cities, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where police raids have led to the detention of Afghan families and their transfer to deportation centers, often without legal recourse.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has denounced these measures as forced repatriation, in violation of international law. The most vulnerable—women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and those at risk because of their professions—are being hit hardest. Former senator Farhatullah Babar has stressed that Pakistan’s lack of domestic refugee legislation does not absolve it of obligations under its tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and the UNHCR.

Girls born and raised in Pakistan face an especially harsh reality. Many have never set foot in Afghanistan, yet are being sent to a country where the Taliban enforces the world’s only ban on girls’ education. Safiya Aftab, Executive Director of Verso Consulting, called the policy “heartless,” especially toward girls. Elsa Imdad Hussain of the Centre for Research and Security Studies has urged Pakistan to adopt a human and gender-centric refugee law—a plea that remains unanswered.

Returnees arrive in a nation already overwhelmed by economic collapse, climate disasters, and humanitarian crises. Taliban authorities, offering minimal assistance, are under severe strain. Tent settlements like Moye Mubarak in Nangarhar now house families such as Mohammad’s, a former sports trainer in Pakistan who now struggles to feed his children.

The deportations are also fueling tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of using refugees as political leverage, while Taliban Acting Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund has urged an end to what he calls a “cruel attitude.” Despite Kabul’s assurances that Afghan territory will not be used against Pakistan, mistrust persists.

Economically, the crackdown threatens already fragile provincial markets. Afghan refugees have long sustained informal labor sectors in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTI’s Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif has warned that targeting legal Afghan residents could “foment hatred, misunderstanding, and mistrust.”

As of early 2025, around 1.3 million Afghans hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, and 700,000 hold Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC). Both were intended to grant limited rights, including healthcare and employment. Yet reports show PoR holders—despite official permission to stay until June—are being arrested and detained. ACC holders, alongside undocumented Afghans, are now top targets for removal from urban areas.

Corruption and bureaucratic hurdles have worsened the crisis. While the official visa renewal fee is $20, delays and passport confiscations have forced many Afghans to pay agents 15,000–20,000 rupees ($54–$72) for expedited processing. Since January, visas once valid for six months have been restricted to one month. The UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have warned that registered Afghan refugees are being systematically relocated from Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The government’s cap of Rs 50,000 on cash carried across the border has left many families without the means to rebuild their lives. Small Afghan-owned businesses in Pakistan have shuttered, and some departing refugees have been exploited by Pakistanis posing as property brokers.

The UNHCR has called on Pakistan to halt the forced return of Afghan refugees—especially PoR holders—arguing that the policy violates the principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee protection. On August 5, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch expressed grave concern for women and girls facing life under Taliban rule, noting that more than 2.1 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return from neighboring countries this year alone, including 352,000 from Pakistan. Deportees, he warned, face severe risks: girls deprived of education, professionals exposed to persecution, and families stripped of livelihoods.

Former ambassador Seema Ilahi Baloch has admitted that while Pakistan’s refugee policy has often conflicted with perceived national interests, mass deportation is not a sustainable solution. Yet, despite repeated appeals from the international community, authorities have expanded the crackdown to include ACC holders—many of whom have never known another home but Pakistan—forcing them into a second displacement, this time into a country defined by repression, poverty, and uncertainty.

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