'Afghan out' drive in Pakistan, Iran pushes over 600,000 back to Taliban regime

Pakistan has ramped up efforts to force out Afghan nationals from the country, as data from the country’s interior ministry shows that over 200,000 people have been deported since April. On top of this, Iran has also begun expelling Afghans from the country, raising concerns over the Taliban’s ability to manage the influx of people amid an already battered economy.

More than 135,000 Afghans left the country in April, followed by 67,000 in May, and more than 3,000 in just the first two days of June. Since the repatriation drive began in November 2023, more than one million Afghans have returned from Pakistan.

Some 600,000 Afghans have travelled to Pakistan since the Taliban took over and implemented their austere version of Islam. However, Islamabad wants over 800,000 Afghanistan citizens to return home after revoking their residency permits. This whopping group includes Afghans born and raised in Pakistan. One of the reasons why the country has waged an “Afghan out” campaign is its alleged links to terrorism.

The number of returnees has slowed ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday later this week, but some Afghans were still crossing the main border points from Pakistan on Wednesday.

“We left behind our orchards” and livelihoods, 21-year-old farmer Mohammad Wali told AFP near the southern Spin Boldak crossing.

“But we said to ourselves, ‘If we stay, maybe one day we’ll lose our dignity,’ so it’s better to return to our homeland now.”

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday voiced concern over a surge in Afghan families being deported from Iran, recording 15,675 crossing in May, a more than two-fold increase from the previous month.

Iran orders Afghans to leave

Meanwhile, Tehran has started its own campaign of driving out Afghans from the country. People from Afghanistan have till July 6 to leave Iran, the country’s interior ministry said.

Nader Yarahmadi, from the Iranian interior ministry, said on state television that it would affect around four million of the more than six million Afghans who Iran says are in the country.

The IOM said the influx across both borders threatens to strain Afghanistan’s already “fragile reception and reintegration systems”.

It again called for “all countries to immediately suspend the forced return of Afghans, regardless of their immigration status, until safe, voluntary, and dignified return conditions are in place”.

How many Afghans live in Pak?

According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, there are 2.18 million documented Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This includes the 1.3 million refugees holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards as per the census carried out in 2006-07, as well as an additional 8,80,000 refugees granted ACCs following a registration drive in 2017.

With inputs from agencies