Tens of thousands of Afghans rush to leave Pakistan as Nov 1st deadline looms

As the clock ticks to the November 1st deadline set for undocumented migrants to leave Pakistan, more than 10,000 Afghans rushed to the borders on Tuesday.

Starting Wednesday, the Pakistani government will start arresting undocumented Afghans and taking them to new holding centres, where they will be processed before being forcibly made to return to Afghanistan.

Pakistan's announcement

On October 4th, Pakistan announced that starting Wednesday (Nov 1st) it will expel undocumented migrants who do not leave on their own.

There are already reports of harassment and extortion from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the majority of Afghan migrants live. However, police as per AFP, said they are yet to begin arrests.

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The expulsion threat as per reports came after suicide bombings this year, which the South Asian nation's government said involved Afghans. However, Pakistan did not provide any evidence for the allegation. Islamabad has also blamed Afghan citizens for smuggling and other militant attacks in the nation.

As per the Taliban's data, between Sept 23 to Oct 22, some 60,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan. 

Recent daily returnee figures to Afghanistan, as per a Reuters report quoting Taliban refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutaleb Haqqani, are three times higher than normal.

"Thousands of Afghan refugees are waiting for their turn in vehicles, lorries, and trucks, and the number continues to grow," said Irshad Mohmand, a senior government official at the Torkham border, while talking to AFP.

"More than 10,000 refugees have gathered since morning."

Harassment or not

Afghanistan's Taliban government, as per AFP, has said that Pakistan's policy amounts to "harassment".

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However, in a statement, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the expulsion plan was compliant with international norms and principles.

"Our record of the last forty years in hosting millions of our Afghan brothers and sisters speaks for itself," said Baloch.

Leaving 'home'

Talking to Reuters, an undocumented Pakistan-born Afghan national who is married to a Pakistani woman said: "We'd live here our whole life if they didn't send us back."

Over four million Afghans have made Pakistan their home, and about 1.7 million of them, according to Islamabad, are undocumented. While many of them sought refuge in Pakistan after the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion.

(With inputs from agencies)

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