Two Years After the Taliban’s Return, Afghans Run Out of Refuge in Pakistan

Over a 40-year period of tumult in Afghanistan, millions have fled to Pakistan as a matter of survival. But in October, the Pakistani government decided to change its policy, announcing a mass deportation drive affecting more than a million people, mainly Afghans. Islamabad justified that shift by accusing targeted individuals of criminality, “antistate” activity, and even terrorism.

Authorities enacted their policy in November, pushing and cajoling Afghans back to a country ruled by one of the world’s most hostile regimes. For some, namely human rights defenders (HRDs) and prodemocracy advocates who fled when the Taliban seized power in 2021, a return home could be a death sentence.

A legacy reversed

Afghans have gone to Pakistan in three distinct waves over the last four decades, though some later returned on their own or with the help of UN agencies during periods of calm. Five million people fled the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion. Others fled the Taliban when it first came to power in the 1990s. The most recent wave left in 2021.

Before the deportation policy was implemented, as many as four million Afghans resided in Pakistan. While many carry documents from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and government-issued identity cards, 1.7 million unregistered people were at risk of deportation as Islamabad’s deadline approached. Some of these people—HRDs, protesters, journalists, scholars, and former government officials—worked for peace and democracy in their homeland and would face the Taliban’s fury if they were forced to return.

Does Pakistan have the right to do this? Not under international law. The Refugee Convention of 1951 prohibits refoulement, a practice where refugees are pushed across borders. Islamabad, however, never signed or ratified this post–World War II compact and is therefore not bound to it. Pakistan, however, should still adhere to customary international law and global standards that govern the treatment of vulnerable people, though Islamabad has been known to disregard this obligation.

A staging area for despair

In a recent conversation with Afghan HRDs in Pakistan, we learned more about the extent of discrimination and hostility encountered by refugees. Government officials and police incite Pakistanis against their Afghan neighbors. Landlords demand upfront payments for several months’ accommodation and threaten those who are short. Shopkeepers charge Afghan refugees more for food than Pakistanis. The situation is even more precarious for those without valid visas. More and more Afghans have recently confined themselves to their dwellings, afraid that they will be stopped and detained.

Uprooted HRDs spoke bitterly about the Pakistani police, explaining how they raid homes and mistreat the refugees and migrants they find. They cited incidents of harassment and physical abuse, psychological torture of both adults and children, humiliation of fathers in front of their families, and violence against women. Police detain children without valid visas. And there are constant demands for bribes.

Afghan refugees have few opportunities to appeal for help. They tell us that UN agencies are unresponsive, while the agencies say they do not have the resources to meet the need. Pakistani authorities do not always honor documents provided by UN agencies or the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (better known as SHARP), a local nongovernmental organization and UNHCR contractor. We have also heard complaints about unprofessional conduct and corruption among those charged with helping refugees.

In October, UN agencies called on Islamabad to reconsider its policy, warning that deported Afghans would face a precarious future back home. That is an understatement: Women and girls in Afghanistan have almost no freedom of movement, and girls enjoy no formal education beyond the sixth grade. Members of ethnic and religious minorities are unprotected from discrimination or violence. And those who speak out against the Taliban face imprisonment, torture, or death.

That warning has regrettably gone unheeded, with the government proceeding on November 1. (While it more recently extended the stay of registered Afghans, unregistered people received no further consideration.) By early December, some 448,000 Afghans had left Pakistan. Afghan refugees have relayed stories of mistreatment, anxiety, and hopelessness. And people who are supposed to be protected from the new policy may well be exposed, with officers reportedly destroying or ignoring UNHCR documents or evidence that they are in the pipeline for resettlement in the United States.

Another choice to be made

Islamabad’s timing is especially cruel; winter has arrived in South Asia, humanitarian aid is meager, and world leaders are distracted by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But governments and international organizations cannot lose sight of what is happening to the Afghan people, even as leaders’ inboxes are full. Nor should they forget how tirelessly HRDs worked to bring human rights, stability, and democratic governance to Afghanistan, goals that many members of the international community want to achieve throughout the world. By ignoring HRDs’ plight now, leaders risk undermining those greater goals.

Capitals and international organizations should heed the call of local advocates and form a coalition of support. Together, they can create a registry of HRDs in Pakistan and resettle them and their families, with the help of the United Nations. Islamabad should allow UN agencies to process refugee cases at a US-backed Resettlement Support Center, so that more people can go to the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and other countries. Washington, for its part, should clear a backlog that has left Afghan HRDs stranded: Hundreds who are at risk of deportation in Pakistan have been waiting for resettlement via the US Refugee Admissions Program.

With the world marking the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights just days ago, today’s leaders should redouble their efforts to make the declaration’s principles a reality, not least for Afghan refugees. Otherwise, those who knew relative peace in Pakistan will be succeeded by future generations whose lives are dominated by danger.