Pakistan Deports Afghan Refugees

In October 2023, the Pakistani government announced that it would arrest and deport hundreds of thousands of unregistered foreign nationals and migrants lacking proper documentation. The deadline was set as November 1, 2023. Reportedly, this was to affect some 1.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan but also members of other persecuted communities including China’s Uyghurs and Myanmar’s Rohingya. While the majority of the over 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan has been in the country since the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, between 600,000 and 800,000 Afghans are believed to have arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban took over power in 2021.

Thousands of Afghans affected by the decision have been living in Pakistan for decades. They consider Pakistan to be their home. Forcing them to leave Pakistan means that they are at imminent risk of being rendered homeless and losing their livelihoods. Furthermore, there are groups of people who are at a particular risk if pushed back to the Taliban-run Afghanistan.