Afghans in Pakistan forced to leave as camp demolished

Under the pale autumn sun, the sound of crying children blends with the rumble of truck engines at the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Pakistan.

Afghan families who have lived in Pakistan for decades are now being forced to leave with only few belongings, including blankets, furniture, cooking pots. Their heartbreak travels with them. They know they can come back, if they get their paperwork in order.

Among those waiting to cross into Afghanistan is 42-year-old Zahra. She is fully covered by a blue burqa as she holds her youngest daughter close.

Families like Zahra’s are trapped in a whirlwind of uncertainty amid Pakistan’s push to expel Afghans, which escalated after intense and deadly border clashes with the Taliban last month.

“I was born in Pakistan. My parents came here during the Soviet war,” she told WTX News. “I don’t know anyone in Afghanistan, but the authorities have asked us to leave.”

The Taliban, being pushed by India, have started a confrontation with Pakistan at the border, which has closed diplomatic ties and creating problems for Afghans in Pakistan.

Lives in danger over sudden expulsion push

Millions fled Afghanistan to Pakistan the following the Soviet invasion in late 1979.

Zahra’s parents and over a hundred members of her extended family were among those who made the journey, with the couple settling in a refugee village in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, where Zahra was born and raised.

This month, Pakistan announced plans to shut down all 54 Afghan refugee villages nationwide as part of an ongoing campaign, initiated in 2023, to remove what it refers to as “illegal foreigners.”

This decision affects villages in Quetta — Zahra’s family home.

For decades, Pakistan’s Quetta was home for many Afghans refugees

Activists argue that the policy is excessively harsh and was implemented too abruptly, leaving families with no place to go.

“The sudden expulsion of Afghan refugees by Pakistani police has put the lives of dozens of people in danger. Those who fled to Pakistan to escape terror, oppression, and violence are now falling into the hands of the Taliban regime because of Pakistan’s actions,” Aziz Gull, an Afghan human rights activist based in Pakistan, told DW.

Pakistani officials ‘more ruthless’ after border fighting

Many other Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan during the 1990s civil war, the US-led invasion of 2021, or after the 2021 Taliban takeover.

There was a time when Pakistan’s generosity towards refugees was a point of national pride. Amid the increasingly bitter row between Islamabad and the Taliban regime, however, and especially after the clashes in October, the Pakistani government has been escalating the expulsion effort and labeling undocumented Afghans a security risk.

“The Afghan Taliban, by igniting border clashes, have made life more difficult for Afghan refugees, who were already in a hard place. The Pakistanis have become more determined, dare I say more ruthless, with the expulsion program,” Osama Malik, a senior humanitarian and refugee law expert, told DW.

The Taliban leaders in Kabul blame Pakistan for the border conflict, which has killed scores since first erupting some four weeks ago. While the two sides have officially agreed to a truce and are engaged in peace talks in Istanbul, the latest exchange of fire on Thursday reportedly claimed at least five lives on the Afghan side of the border.

‘We were born in this country’

Over the years, Afghan migrants have established new lives by enrolling in Pakistani schools, joining cricket clubs, starting small businesses, and renting homes in cities such as Karachi, Quetta, and Peshawar.

“We were born in this country and have established our lives here, so it comes as a sudden shock to hear that we must leave. We have never set foot in Afghanistan, and we don’t know where we will go,” Abdul Rehman, a 44-year-old fruit seller from Quetta, who has demolished his home in preparation for returning to Afghanistan, told WTX.

“My children are enrolled in a Pakistani school and speak Urdu, and my daughter’s education will be ended in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. They watch Pakistani TV shows and series. How will they survive there?” he said.

End of Pakistan’s hospitality

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, has criticized Pakistan’s decision to forcibly return Afghan refugees, including those holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards and those who officially require international protection.

“We are concerned about women and girls being forced to return to a country where their rights to work and education are at risk,” Qaiser Khan Afridi, the UNHCR’s spokesperson in Pakistan, told DW.

Afridi praised Pakistan’s generosity and “proud history of hospitality,” saying that this tradition should continue.

With Pakistan facing an economic crisis, political instability and military conflict, however, many ordinary Pakistanis have soured on Afghan refugees. The locals often blame Afghan migrants of competing for employment and housing, while officials publicly link them to crime and terror networks.

“For four decades, we have welcomed Afghans into our country, showcasing our hospitality and generosity. But this cannot continue indefinitely, and they will eventually need to return. Additionally, any foreigners residing in the country illegally will be deported immediately,” senior Pakistan Interior Ministry official Talal Chaudhry.

Female medical student travels to Afghanistan

At makeshift camps near the Chaman crossings, long queues of vehicles stretch across the dusty plains as people wait for hours to be processed before entering Afghanistan.

“We left our home in Quetta two days ago and are going to an unfamiliar place,” says Fatima, a 22-year-old medical student. “I had to quit my studies because I don’t have the necessary documents. My dream was to work in a hospital, and now I am uncertain about my future in an undemocratic country where girls’ education is banned.”

Across the border, the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is already facing a critical humanitarian crisis, which includes food shortages, severe winter conditions, and draconian restrictions on public life, especially for women.

“Afghanistan is not prepared to handle such a large influx of returnees,” says UNHCR representative Afridi. “Most families have nowhere to go, and many are returning to regions still recovering from conflict.”

Living between two worlds

As the sun sets over the mountains near the border, children play around trucks stacked with their families’ belongings. Their laughter briefly covers up the despair of their parents.

Zahra’s eyes are fixed on the horizon.

“We have crossed so many borders in our lives. But this one feels final,” she says.

Her family steps forward as their names are called. Within minutes, she disappears into the flow of people heading toward Afghanistan, a land they have never seen, a future they cannot fully imagine. The graves of her parents stay behind.

For the Pakistani government, the deportations are a matter of state policy. For families like Zahra’s, they mark the end of a lifetime spent hoping to belong in a country that has rejected them.