Pakistan: Mass deportation continues with 20,000 Afghans in April
Pakistan has continued its mass deportation plan with nearly 20,000 Afghans in April 2025, among more than 80,000 who have already left according to the UN, as the Pakistani state struggles.
Pakistan has accelerated its drive to expel ‘undocumented’ Afghans and those with temporary permission to stay, citing the struggling state services and economic burden of refugees and asylum seekers, according to the BBC on April 19th.
According to Taliban officials, between 700 and 800 families are being deported daily but with an Afghan population of 3.5 million, Pakistan have had to extend their deportation deadline to April 30th.
Of the 3.5 million Afghans, the UN estimates that half are undocumented as many fled the twenty plus years of war endured in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover in 2021.
The Pakistani government have said the high number of refugees now poses a threat to national security and causes pressure on public services, with many media outlets presenting Afghans as potential terroristic threats.
“We have communicated clear instructions to all provinces, if anyone gives a shop, house, or any kind of space to an illegal foreigner, they will be held accountable under the law,” an Islamabad official said to Al Jazeera.
Military trucks have since shuffled Afghan families towards the border with Afghanistan to temporary shelters where they are given 4,0000 to 10,000 Afghanis (£41 to 104) by the Kabul authorities to restart their lives in Afghanistan.
However, whilst mass forced deportation may suit the economic condition of Pakistan, the deportation is placing significant pressure on Afghanistan’s fragile infrastructure and weak economy with a population which already sits at 45 million.
Not to mention the worsening living standards following the suspension of USAID and, in particular, the World Food Programme’s work in Afghanistan which has been suspended due to Trump’s cuts, according to Maghrebi.
Human rights groups have ferociously criticized the campaign of forced deportation, warning that mass deportations risk endangering vulnerable people, particularly women, children, and those who fled persecution from the Taliban.
Many opposition forces who had forced with the US forces on the ground fled to Pakistan after the US withdrawal will now be potentially forcefully returned to Afghanistan under the control of the radical Islamist government of the Taliban.
Life under the Taliban for women and girls is incredibly difficult and many Afghan’s returning are devastated by the loss of opportunities for their children. Saleh, a father of three daughters, worried what life under Taliban rule will mean for them. His daughters attended school in Pakistan’s Punjab province, but in Afghanistan, girls over the age of 12 are barred from doing so.
Pakistan are therefore deporting millions of people whose lives will be considerably more difficult under an oppressive Taliban regime to a country many of whom have never visited. The international arena has been silent on the issue so far.
BBC, Al Jazeera, Maghrebi
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