Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure
Pakistan
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans to leave the country
SPIN BOLDAK (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days, the United Nations and Taliban officials said, as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan.
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad's campaign in recent years to repatriate Afghans.
Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling similar scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.
"In the last 2 days, 8,025 undocumented and ACC holders returned via Torkham and Spin Boldak crossings," the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.
"IOM stands ready to scale up its response at key border points with returns expected to surge in the coming days," it said.
Taliban officials also said thousands of people had crossed the border, but at lower rates than the IOM reported.
Refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told AFP that 6,000-7,000 Afghans had returned since the start of April, saying "more than a million Afghans might return".
"We are urging Pakistan authorities not to deport them (Afghans) -- there should be a proper mechanism with an agreement between both countries, and they must be returned with dignity," he said.
The UN says nearly three million Afghans live in Pakistan, many having lived there for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and after the Taliban's return to power in Kabul in 2021.
More than 1.3 million Afghans who hold Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been told to move outside the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi.
Ties between the neighbouring countries have frayed since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul's rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on its soil, a charge that the Taliban government denies, as Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in border regions with Afghanistan.
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