Afghans in droves head to border to leave Pakistan ahead of a deadline in anti-migrant crackdown

Afghan refugees arrive in trucks and cars to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman on October 31, 2023. More than 10,000 Afghans living in Pakistan rushed to the borders on October 31, just hours before a deadline for 1.7 million people to leave Pakistan voluntarily or face arrest and deportation. Photo/AFP

Large numbers of Afghans crammed into trucks and buses in Pakistan on Tuesday, heading to the border to return home hours before the expiration of a Pakistani government deadline for those who are in the country illegally to leave or face deportation.

The deadline is part of a new anti-migrant crackdown that targets all undocumented or unregistered foreigners, according to Islamabad. But it mostly affects Afghans, who make up the bulk of migrants in Pakistan.

The expulsion campaign has drawn widespread criticism from U.N. agencies, rights groups and the Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials warn that people who are in the country illegally face arrest and deportation after October 31. U.N. agencies say there are more than 2 million undocumented Afghans in Pakistan, at least 6,00,000 of whom fled after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Although the government insists it isn't targeting Afghans, the campaign comes amid strained relations between Pakistan and the Taliban rulers next door. Islamabad accuses Kabul of turning a blind eye to Taliban-allied militants, who find shelter in Afghanistan, from where they go back and forth across the two countries' shared 2,611-kilometre border to stage attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban deny the accusations.

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"My father came to Pakistan 40 years ago," said 52-year-old Mohammad Amin, speaking in Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

"He died here. My mother also died here and their graves are in Pakistan," said Amin, originally from Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province. "We are going back today as we never tried to register ourselves as refugees with the U.N. refugee agency."

"I am going back with good memories," he told The Associated Press, adding that he would head to the Torkham border crossing later Tuesday.

Nasrullah Khan, 62, said he'd heard the Taliban are considering helping Afghans on their return from Pakistan. He said he was not worried by the prospect of Taliban rule but that it was still "better to go back to Afghanistan instead of getting arrested here."

More than 2,00,000 Afghans have returned home since the crackdown was launched, according to Pakistani officials. U.N. agencies have reported a sharp increase in Afghans leaving Pakistan ahead of the deadline.

Pakistan has insisted the deportations would be carried out in a "phased and orderly" manner.

Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis, particularly for women and girls, who are banned by the Taliban from getting an education beyond the sixth grade, most public spaces and jobs. There are also restrictions on media, activists, and civil society organizations.

Jan Achakzai, a government spokesman in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, said on Tuesday that anyone who is detained under the new policy will be well treated and receive transport to the Chaman border crossing point.

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