From April 15, Pakistan will begin the quest to send about 850,000 documented Afghan refugees back to their country of origin. Interestingly, the mass repatriation is being portrayed as a process of asking the Afghan Citizen Card holders (an ID card issued by the Pakistani government) to move back voluntarily. However, when they do not exercise their voluntarism, they would be facing arrests and deportation[1]. This is the second phase of deportation after September 2023, which gave about 1.7 million undocumented Afghans just 28 days to leave Pakistan voluntarily.
Though the government promised repatriation to be a phased and orderly process, the reality has been different and disappointing. The authorities have carried out mass detentions, along with seizing properties and livestock and destroying the identity documents of the refugees.