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4h ago

Pakistan Restarts Deportation of 1.4 Million Afghan Refugees

A Special Regulatory Order voiding Proof of Registration cards empowers authorities to detain Afghan refugees under the 1946 Foreigners Act

FILE - Afghan refugee children play next to trucks loaded with their family's belongings as they wait to return Afghanistan along a highway in Landi Kotal, Pakistan, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)
U.S. military personnel escort an alleged gang member deported by the U.S. to be imprisoned in the CECOT prison, at the international airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, April 12, 2025 (photo by El Salvador’s Press Office of the Presidency via Reuters).
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Afghan refugees board a bus to leave for their homeland Afghanistan, at a terminal in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 9.

Overview

  • The government refused to extend the June 30 deadline, triggering forced deportations of about 1.4 million Afghans holding expired PoR cards.
  • Police across Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are conducting house-to-house checks and detaining Afghan Citizen Card holders on grounds of illegal stay.
  • Afghan returnees at Torkham report extortion, document confiscation, and humiliating treatment by Pakistani officials.
  • UNHCR has warned that the deportations risk breaching non-refoulement obligations and endangering refugees’ lives.
  • The mass expulsions threaten to strain Afghanistan’s fragile economy and stoke regional instability as returnees face dire humanitarian conditions.