“I am scared,” absorbs Nabila.
The life of a 10-year-old is limited to one of its bedroom homes in Islamabad and the dirt outside it. She has not gone to her local school since December, when it decided that it would no longer accept Afghans without a valid Pakistani birth certificate. But even if she can go to classes, Nabila says she will not do it.
“I was ill one day, and I heard that the police came in search of Afghan children,” she cries, as she tells us that her friend’s family was sent back to Afghanistan.
Nabila is not his real name. The names of the Afghans quoted in this article have been changed for his safety.
According to the United Nations, Afghan exile, arrest, and detention are increasing in Pakistan’s capital and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi. It is estimated that more than half of the three million Afghans in the country are specified.
The Afghans described a life of constant fear and near the daily police raids on their homes.
Some told the Experssepaper that if they went back to Afghanistan, they were afraid of being killed. These include families of an American rehabilitation program suspended by the Trump administration.
Philip Candler, representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Islamabad, says that Pakistan is disappointed at how long Pakistan is taking. Migration (IOM) for the International Organization of the United Nations says that 930 people were sent back to Afghanistan in the first half of February, doubling the figure two weeks ago. At least 20% of people exempted from Islamabad and Rawalpindi were identified as individuals requiring international security by the documents of the United Nations Refugee Agency. But Pakistan is not a party to the refugee conference, and earlier, it was said that it does not recognize the Afghans living in the country as refugees. Government
A new phase
Pakistan has a long record of taking Afghan refugees. However, across the border, attacks increased the tension between the two neighbors. Pakistan blamed him on terrorists based in Afghanistan, which was denied by the Taliban government. From September 2023, 836,238 people have returned to Afghanistan when the “Reporting Scheme of Illegal Foreigners” of Pakistan was first implemented.
Amidst this current stage of exile, some Afghans are being held at Haji camp in Islamabad. Ahmed was near the end of the rehabilitation program being run by the United States. He tells us that when President Donald Trump suspended it for review, he extinguished Ahmed’s “final hope”. The Expetrssepaper has noticed what their employment letter seems to be by a western, Christian non-profit group in Afghanistan.
A few weeks ago, while he was shopping, he received a call. His three-year-old daughter was online. “My child called, let’s come, Baba police here, the police come to our door,” they said. His wife’s visa extension was still pending, and she was busy pleading with the police.
Ahmed ran home. “I could not leave them behind.” He says he sat in a van and waited for hours as the police continued their raids. The wives and children of his neighbors continued to deceive the vehicle. Ahmed started receiving calls from his husbands, begging them. They had already fled into the forest.
Ahmed claims that his family was “held for three days under unimaginable circumstances.” He claims that each family was given only one blanket and a piece of bread per day, and their phone was removed. The Pakistani government says that it ensures that “no one is misbehaved or harassed during the reversion process”.
We try to go inside the Haji camp to verify Ahmed’s account, but the auto refuses to enter.
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- Taliban
- Migration