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06-03-2025
ISLAMABAD/ KABUL: “I’m scared,” sobs Nabila.
The 10-year-old’s life is limited to her one-bedroom home in Islamabad and the dirt road outside it. Since December she hasn’t been to her local school, when it decided it would no longer accept Afghans without a valid Pakistani birth certificate but even if she could go to classes, Nabila says she wouldn’t.
“I was off sick one day, and I heard police came looking for Afghan children,” she cries, as she tells us her friend’s family were sent back to Afghanistan.
Nabila’s not her real name, all the names of Afghans quoted in this article have been changed for their safety.
Pakistan’s capital and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi are witnessing a surge in deportations, arrests and detentions of Afghans, the UN says. It estimates that more than half of the three million Afghans in the country are undocumented.
Afghans describe a life of constant fear and near daily police raids on their homes.
Some told the BBC they feared being killed if they went back to Afghanistan. These include families on a US resettlement program that has been suspended by the Trump administration.
Pakistan is frustrated at how long relocation program are taking, says Philippa Candler, the UN Refugee Agency’s representative in Islamabad. The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 930 people were sent back to Afghanistan in the first half of February, double the figure two weeks earlier. At least 20% of those deported from Islamabad and Rawalpindi had documentation from the UN Refugee Agency, meaning they were recognized as people in need of international protection but Pakistan is not a party to the Refugee Convention and has previously said it does not recognize Afghans living in the country as refugees. The government has said its policies are aimed at all illegal foreign nationals and a deadline for them to leave is looming. That date has fluctuated but is now set to 31 March for those without valid visas, and 30 June for those with resettlement letters.
Many Afghans are terrified amid the confusion. They also say the visa process can be difficult to navigate. Nabila’s family believes they have only one option: to hide. Her father Hamid served in the Afghan military, before the Taliban takeover in 2021. He broke down in tears describing his sleepless nights.
“I have served my country and now I’m useless. That job has doomed me,” he said.
His family are without visas, and are not on a resettlement list. They tell us their phone calls to the UN’s refugee agency go unanswered.
The BBC has reached out to the agency for comment.
The Taliban government has previously told the BBC all Afghans should return because they could “live in the country without any fear”. It claims these refugees are “economic migrants” but a UN report in 2023 cast doubt on assurances from the Taliban government. It found hundreds of former government officials and armed forces members were allegedly killed despite a general amnesty.
The Taliban government’s guarantees are of little reassurance to Nabila’s family so they choose to run when authorities are nearby. Neighbors offer each other shelter, as they all try to avoid retuning to Afghanistan.
The UN counted 1,245 Afghans being arrested or detained in January across Pakistan, more than double the same period last year.
Nabila says Afghans shouldn’t be forced out. “Don’t kick Afghans out of their homes we’re not here by choice, we are forced to be here.”
There is a feeling of sadness and loneliness in their home. “I had a friend who was here and then was deported to Afghanistan,” Nabila’s mother Maryam says.
“She was like a sister, a mother. The day we were separated was a difficult day.” (BBC)
