When the Taliban stormed to power in Afghanistan in 2021, hundreds of thousands of at-risk Afghans fearing for their lives fled to neighboring Pakistan.
Five years on, thousands remain in the South Asian country as they wait to be resettled to third countries, often living in hiding to evade deportation to their homeland.
They include journalists, activists, and those who served in the ousted US-backed Afghan government and its security and intelligence services. Many of them fear reprisal from the Taliban, which has been accused of the extrajudicial killing and torture of former adversaries.
Islamabad has forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans in recent years, while more than 2.6 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan since a mass expulsion campaign began in 2023, according to the UN.
‘I Evaded The Taliban’
Among the tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans who remain in Pakistan is a former officer in the Afghan National Army.
The 30-year-old said he has twice been arrested and deported by Pakistani police in the last two years. Each time, he has bribed Pakistan border police to let him reenter the country.
Many Afghans in Pakistan are on expired visas and face major hurdles in renewing their documents. Few have rights in Pakistan, where they are unable to work, study, or even rent property.
“It was sheer luck that I evaded the Taliban,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. He said the militant Islamist group often checks returning Afghans at the border to identify former combatants.
If caught, he said, he would be jailed or executed.
Half of his family has resettled in Canada since 2021, while the rest remain in Afghanistan. His application in Canada was rejected, and he is now awaiting resettlement in Australia.
The man, who did not reveal where in Pakistan he lives, said he keeps a low profile and only ventures outside when necessary.
“We’ve stopped wearing our traditional Afghan dress in public,” he said of the Afghan community. “We avoid speaking with people that we don’t recognize, and we don’t go to restaurants — all this for fear of arrest by the local police.”
‘Life Is Very Difficult’
He is not alone.
An Afghan women’s rights campaigner lives with her two brothers in a remote area outside Islamabad to evade the police after their visas expired.
“Life is very difficult and we even avoid visiting a doctor or hospital” because they could be reported to the police, she said on condition of anonymity.
The woman said she is afraid to return to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has created one of the world’s most repressive regimes, depriving many Afghans of their basic rights, especially women.
The hard-line group has severely curtailed women’s and girls’ appearances, freedom of movement, and right to work and study, essentially erasing females from public life.
Another Afghan rights activist also fled Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban takeover. She said her father, an engineer, was killed by the Taliban for working for the previous Afghan government.
“We pass our day in the public parks or sometimes in hospital lawns” for fear of daytime raids on our rented apartment, she said, speaking anonymously.
She said six months ago, police raided her rented apartment for the second time and arrested her along with her three sisters for not having valid visas. The woman said he avoided deportation after paying a bribe, but her three sisters were forcibly expelled.
“It’s getting difficult to live in Pakistan and it’s difficult to be accepted by a third country,” she said. “It’s bleak everywhere we look.”
Humanitarian Grounds
Pakistan said vulnerable Afghans are exempted from deportation on humanitarian grounds. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on August 30 that 16,000 at-risk Afghans are benefiting from the exemption.
But the UN puts the number of vulnerable Afghans substantially higher.
Over 74,000 Afghans who reside in Pakistan face serious risks if returned to Afghanistan, according to Qaiser Khan Afridi, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan.
“It means that many people who may be at serious risk have not yet been identified or included on any government list,” said Afridi. “Some may be staying in hiding because they are afraid to come forward.”
Afridi said an additional problem is that those Afghans granted an exemption are not consistently provided with documentation confirming their protected status.
“As a result, local authorities may not be able to identify who is exempted, leaving some people at continued risk of arrest, forced return, abuse, or loss of access to basic services,” he said.
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