New York, March 19 US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged that Pakistan should immediately end the forced return and deportation of Afghan refugees.
Pakistan has set a March 31 deadline for the deportation of all Afghan refugees. However, much before the deadline, the Pakistani authorities have been accused of intensifying abusive tactics and other pressure on Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan.
Several reports revealed that Afghan refugees are facing massive harassment and abuse in Pakistan. Asking various human rights organisations to take action on their behalf, the Afghan refugees stated that despite holding valid legal documents, they are facing the threat of illegal detention, deportation, and discrimination.
The deportation would pose serious risks to the refugees of persecution and economic hardship under Afghan Taliban rule.
"Pakistani officials should immediately stop coercing Afghans to return home and give those facing expulsion the opportunity to seek protection," said Elaine Pearson, Asia Director at the Human Rights Watch.
According to the rights watchdog, Pakistani police have raided houses, beaten and arbitrarily detained people, confiscating their refugee documents, including residence permits. They have also demanded bribes to allow Afghans to remain in Pakistan.
The United Nations has reported that most Afghans who have returned to Afghanistan have cited fear of detention by Pakistani authorities as the reason they left.
Masood Rahmati, an Afghan journalist, said that even Afghans who are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or who had valid residence cards were not safe in Pakistan.
"We had PoR cards. But the police cut our cards and sent us to Afghanistan," an Afghan refugee stated.
Narrating their harrowing experience in Pakistan, Afghan refugees told HRW that Pakistani police raided their houses or neighbourhoods both during the day and at night and took them or relatives to police stations to extort money.
A 33-year-old Afghan woman living in Islamabad said the house raids in her area began at 4 am "as if they were looking for criminals. It's a very traumatizing experience".
"They brought trucks and arrested people. If you don't open the door, they will enter through the windows. They don't care about children or older people. I know of people with valid visas who had to pay between Rs 20,000 and 100,000 Pakistani rupees (US$70 to $400) not to be arrested," HRW quoted Zahra, an Afghan refugee who has lived in Pakistan since 2023, as saying.
A previous wave of deportations and expulsions from September 2023 through January 2024, drove over 800,000 Afghans – many born in Pakistan or living there for decades – to Afghanistan. Since November 2024, Pakistani authorities have renewed pressure to expel Afghans. More than 70 per cent of those returning have been women and children, including girls of secondary school age and women who will no longer have access to education.
Returning Afghan refugees have generally had to abandon property and savings in Pakistan, and have few livelihood opportunities or little land in Afghanistan, the HRW stated.
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