ISLAMABAD — More than 200,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government resumed its mass deportation campaign in April, officials confirmed this week, deepening an ongoing humanitarian crisis as Kabul struggles to absorb the returnees.
According to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, over 135,000 Afghans exited the country in April, followed by 67,000 in May. In the first two days of June alone, more than 3,000 were deported. The crackdown is part of a larger effort to expel more than 800,000 undocumented Afghans, many of whom have lived in Pakistan for decades or were born on its soil.
Islamabad launched its first wave of evictions in 2023, triggering a chaotic exodus of hundreds of thousands of Afghans across the border. Since then, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan, either voluntarily or under threat of arrest, detention, and forced removal.
The move has sparked criticism from rights groups and international organizations, who warn that Afghanistan — already reeling under economic collapse, sanctions, and humanitarian strain following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 — lacks the infrastructure to support the influx.
On June 3, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) raised alarms over a parallel rise in Afghan deportations from Iran, where more than 15,600 were forced to return in May — more than double the figure from April. The IOM warned that Afghanistan’s fragile “reception and reintegration systems” are nearing collapse.
Pakistan, for its part, accuses Afghan nationals of involvement in domestic security incidents and has repeatedly charged the Taliban government with harboring militants targeting Pakistani soil — a claim Kabul denies.
In a potentially more sweeping move, Islamabad is now considering ending protections for the 1.3 million Afghans who hold refugee cards issued by the UNHCR. The deadline: the end of June — a decision that could leave even registered refugees vulnerable to forced retur
