The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported on Tuesday that nearly 60,000 Afghans have been compelled to depart Pakistan since the beginning of April, as Islamabad has escalated its campaign to deport migrants back to Afghanistan.
Last month, the federal government set an early April deadline for approximately 800,000 Afghans holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistani authorities to leave the country, marking the second phase of its efforts to remove Afghan migrants.
“Between 1 and 13 April 2025, IOM recorded a sharp rise in forced returns, with nearly 60,000 individuals crossing back into Afghanistan through the Torkham and Spin Boldak border points,” the UN agency stated.
Families carrying their belongings have crowded the crossings at Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, echoing scenes from 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled threats of deportation from Pakistan.
“With a new wave of large-scale returns now underway from Pakistan, needs on the ground are rising rapidly — both at the border and in areas of return that are struggling to absorb large numbers of returnees,” said Mihyung Park, head of the IOM’s Afghanistan mission.
The UN estimates that nearly three million Afghans reside in Pakistan, many having lived there for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their homeland and following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.
More than 1.3 million Afghans holding Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been instructed to relocate outside the capital Islamabad and the adjacent city of Rawalpindi.
The Taliban authorities have consistently called for Afghans to be allowed a “dignified” return to Afghanistan.
As Afghans began crossing the border in significant numbers once again, the Taliban Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation stated: “The mistreatment of them (Afghans) by neighbouring countries is unacceptable and intolerable.”
‘Halt the Forced Returns’
Relations between the two nations have strained since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s rulers of failing to eliminate militants finding refuge on Afghan soil, an accusation the Taliban government denies, even as Pakistan has witnessed a sharp increase in violence in its border regions with Afghanistan.
State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry stated last week that Islamabad was “taking these steps because Afghans are linked to terrorist and narcotics activities.”
He added that Afghans awaiting visas to a third country while in Pakistan “would be catered to case by case.”
However, he emphasized, “there will be no extension for anyone after April 30.”
The IOM urged “all countries to immediately halt the forced returns of Afghans until conditions are in place to ensure safe, dignified, and voluntary returns, regardless of a person’s legal status.”
The agency reported that between September 2023 and April of this year, over 2.43 million undocumented Afghan migrants have returned from Pakistan and Iran, with more than half of them being forcibly returned.
