Clock ticking for Afghan refugees as Pakistan rejects calls to abort mass deportation

More than a million Afghan refugees in Pakistan have just days left to leave the country, throwing them and their loved ones all over the world, including in Australia, into disarray.

Disregarding calls by local and international human rights bodies, the Pakistani government plans to go ahead with rounding up and deporting ‘undocumented’ Afghan refugees back to the war-ravaged country after setting a deadline of 1 November 2023.

The aftershocks of this decision are resonating worldwide among the Afghan diaspora, including in Australia.
Where will my children go?
Brisbane-based Yasmeen Nazaryar managed to escape Taliban persecution in Afghanistan by risking her own life, but two years have passed since she tried to get her three children to safety.

She told SBS Urdu that her three children – two daughters and a son – are anxiously waiting to sort out their Australian visas in Pakistan but are now faced with the grim threat of deportation.
Last night, my children phoned me and told me their landlord asked them to leave within two weeks, after police directed all landlords to force Afghan refugees out. My kids are very afraid and asking me where will they go.

As the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, thousands of refugees fled to neighbouring Pakistan to escape persecution.

There, they joined over a million of their compatriots struggling to settle and integrate since their arrival during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan over four decades ago.

Together, both groups of Afghans now make up the largest number of refugees living in the cities, villages and towns of Pakistan.

Conservative estimates by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, suggest about 1.3 million Afghan refugees are legally registered with them and 88,000 others also have legal justification to stay.

However, Pakistan’s interim interior minister, Sarfaraz Bugti, has stated that 1.7 million Afghan refugees are living illegally in Pakistan and “must exit” before 1 November.

In a statement supplied to SBS Urdu, the High Commissioner for Pakistan to Australia, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, said, “Pakistan will continue to host over 1.4 million Afghan refugees who are registered with the Government of Pakistan with generosity and empathy despite our resource constraints and economic challenges.”
The policy is aimed at deporting all illegal individuals irrespective of their nationality including unregistered and undocumented Afghans in a phased, timely and orderly manner.
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, High Commissioner for Pakistan to Australia
Just like Ms Nazaryar’s children, many newly arrived Afghan refugees are camping in Islamabad and other cities while they wait for humanitarian visas from western countries.

According to Ms Nazaryar, her two daughters and one son have submitted applications for Australian visas and have also completed biometric registration and medical tests.

“I don’t know when they will get the visa and why it is taking so long when five months ago all their work was done, and they were just waiting for the Australian visa,” she said.

In an attempt to justify the looming deadline, Pakistani authorities have pointed to recent terrorist incidents in the country they say were carried out by Afghan nationals.

At a recent press conference, Mr Bugti claimed, “Since 1 January, 14 of the total 24 suicide bombers in Pakistan have been Afghan nationals.”

Reacting to this, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad accused the Pakistani police of conducting a “brutal” operation against Afghan refugees and of indiscriminately arresting women and children.

In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) last week, the Afghan Embassy said more than 1,000 Afghans, half of whom had a legal right to stay in Pakistan, had been detained in the past two weeks.

As no government in the world has officially recognised the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban as the official and legitimate government of Afghanistan, there is no active embassy of Australia or any other Western country in Kabul that can proceed with visa processing for asylum seekers. Therefore, many Afghan refugees have been turning to Pakistan.