Pakistan’s forced deportation of Afghans much more than ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

Kabul, Aug 22 (IANS) Pakistan’s forced deportation of Afghans are not merely a “humanitarian catastrophe” but a destabilising political and economic move with serious consequences, a report has stated.

Activists and journalists face grave threats, while the Taliban have already targeted former government officials and women’s rights defenders. For those forcibly returned from Pakistan, the danger is immediate, with many facing the risk of arrest, torture or even execution, according to a report in ‘Afghan Diaspora Network.

“On August 7, Pakistan’s Peshawar High Court rejected asylum and temporary residence requests by two former Afghan soldiers, ruling that they had failed to establish a violation of their fundamental rights. The petitioners had sought temporary protection, visa extensions, and immunity from arrest and deportation, arguing that their lives would be in grave danger if returned to Afghanistan. Yet the court concluded that such fears were insufficient grounds to invoke constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 of Pakistan’s Constitution. This ruling underscores the rigidity of Pakistan’s legal framework in the face of an unfolding humanitarian crisis,” it detailed.

According to the report, Pakistan’s Foreign National Security Cell has led a sweeping crackdown involving mass arrests and deportations. Citing official figures, it said that 140,468 Afghan nationals have already been deported from Punjab province alone.

The report noted that the nationwide figure has reached approximately 2.68 million deportations, many involving families who had spent decades living in Pakistan. Yet this unfolding humanitarian crisis has received little attention from the international community.

The human cost of the crackdown, the report said, has been devastating. Families who once sought refuge in Pakistan are now reportedly being assaulted at checkpoints, robbed of their savings and essential documents before being forcibly pushed across a border that Afghanistan itself has historically contested.

“Entire Afghan neighborhoods are bulldozed, homes demolished, and communities uprooted with military-style precision. People are dragged from their homes, forced into trucks, and dumped at the Durand Line crossings with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Mothers give birth at crossing points, elders collapse from exhaustion, and children are separated from their families in the chaos,” the Afghan Diaspora Network mentioned.

Highlighting the lack of global attention to the crisis, the report said that the plight of Afghan refugees had long been overshadowed by other conflicts.

It stressed that the hypocrisy is particularly stark inside Pakistan. Only days ago, Karachi and Lahore saw massive pro-Palestine demonstrations, even as Afghan families are being driven from their homes, stripped of their dignity and subjected to mass deportations.

The report questioned how Pakistan can denounce apartheid abroad while practicing ethnic persecution at home.

“This is not a security policy; it is state violence rooted in decades of neglect, racism, and scapegoating. Afghan refugees have long been treated as expendable, tolerated when politically convenient, discarded when expedient,” it noted.

–IANS

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