Afghans in Pakistan facing deportation and uncertainty

Thousands of people arrived at the Torkham border crossing in north-western Pakistan, after Pakistan announced that it had begun taking undocumented Afghans to camps for deportation. With around 4 million Afghans, Pakistan is home to the majority of the Afghan diaspora. According to government figures, 1.7 million of them are in the country illegally.

After the Taliban came to power again in 2021, around 600,000 Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan. But even before that many Afghans had already moved there due to conflicts at home in the 1970s and 1980s. Many second- or third-generation Afghans have never even visited Afghanistan.

In the Afghan province of Nangarhar, just over the border from Pakistan, fully loaded trucks take Afghan families across the border.

The Taliban government set up two tent camps near Torkham on the Afghan side to accomodate the masses of people. Pakistan's government had set a deadline: Illegal immigrants had to leave the country by November 1. However, many Afghans are rightfully afraid to return to the country from which they fled.

Taliban fighters guard a registration point for the new arrivals from Pakistan. The organization Reporters Without Borders has warned that around 200 Afghan media professionals are also at risk of deportation from Pakistan. After the Taliban took power many Afghan reporters fled abroad, including to Pakistan, for fear of repression.

Several international aid organizations have expressed concern about the precarious situation many Afghans deported from Pakistan find themselves in. There is a lack of accommodation, food, drinking water, heating and hygiene facilities on the Afghan side of the border. Many people are sleeping in the open.

At night temperatures here drop to below 10 degrees Celsius. Pakistan's decision to summarily deport Afghans has been met with fierce criticism. The UN's Refugee Agency warns of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as winter approaches. Many families have nowhere to return to in Afghanistan and will be homeless.

The refugee protection organization Pro Asyl has called on the German government to take in Afghans who are particularly at risk and quickly. "Many people had to go to Pakistan to complete migration procedures for Germany or other countries," Alema Alema, ProAsyl's spokesperson for Afghanistan, said. "The Federal Foreign Office must take steps to get them out fast now."