Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With Pakistan’s crackdown on “undocumented” refugees, over 400,000 poverty-stricken Afghans—elders, women, and children included—have returned home in the last three weeks across the international border—to face the Taliban, starvation, and biting cold.
The media, quoting Pakistani officials, said on Tuesday that the remaining 14 lakh Afghans, registered as refugees need not worry as only people without proper documentation had been deported.
Reports said nearly 13 lakh Afghans had returned home in the last 20 months from Pakistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, confirmed the number, saying that the majority have been using the border crossings of Torkham and Spin Boldak to return home.
Nearly 17 lakh Afghans had been living in Pakistan for decades when authorities announced its nationwide crackdown, warning that anyone without proper documents had to leave the country by October 31 or else get arrested.
In the 1980s, millions of Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. The numbers witnessed a spike after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
Replacing special permits, Pakistan also introduced plans under which hundreds of thousands of residents in the southwestern border town of Chaman would need visas to cross between the two countries.
On Monday, hundreds briefly blocked a key road leading to the Chaman border, disrupting traffic and the repatriation of some of the Afghans.
Residents in Chaman have been protesting repeatedly, asking Pakistan to allow them to continue using the special permits for business purposes and to meet with relatives who live in the Afghan border city of Spin Boldak.
Since November 1, police in Pakistan have been going door-to-door to check migrants’ documentation and bulldozed their “illegal” hutments.
Earlier, Pakistani officials said the crackdown involves all foreigners in the country, but most of those affected are Afghan nationals.
The latest development comes days after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that about 13 lakh Afghans could be forced to return to their country of origin from Pakistan despite the onset of cold weather.
The Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan said it was providing shelter and food to returnees.