With Pakistan reviving its effort to deport Afghans, many opponents of the Taliban are in danger of returning to a country ruled by the Islamist regime.
A woman who we will call Fatima fled Afghanistan with her family in December 2021. She had worked for an American nonprofit organization in Kabul until the US pullout in the summer of 2021, when the Taliban retook control of the country.
She is now based in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. And she is in trouble. Her Pakistani visa is days away from expiring, and the authorities are still processing her renewal application.
“I am concerned about the renewal of my visa, and if not renewed timely authorities would arrest me and my family for illegally residing in the country,” Fatima told DW.
Police, including female officers, recently conducted a raid on a building where Fatima lives, looking for undocumented Afghan refugees. She was not in the building at the time, but her brother ended up in custody.
“Later, we showed them our visa renewal application receipts and proof but police did not cooperate,” said Fatima, who is now hiding from the authorities.
In 2023, Pakistan started a massive initiative to repatriate approximately 4 million Afghans who have entered the country over the past 40 years. And while the authorities granted some leeway last year, Pakistan’s government has now set a March 31 deadline to expel foreign nationals residing in the country illegally, with search operations ongoing in January and February.
Afghan refugees living in Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi “have been verbally asked to leave Pakistan till 28th February,” Umer Gillani, a legal expert and rights activist, told DW.
Moniza Kakar, a lawyer working for refugees advocacy in Pakistan, said there was “uncertainty and fear” among the Afghani nationals in the area.
“Since the start of this year, over 1,000 Afghans have been detained in Islamabad, and more than 18,000 have been forced to leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi because of government orders,” she said.
