January 7, 2024
Ahmad Nisar
(Kabul, Afghanistan)

Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees these last several decades. Recently, however, they've implemented a brutal and sudden deportation policy that is being criticized by human rights organizations around the world.

 

Recently, however, a high influx of Afghan refugees who escaped the war and sought refuge in Pakistan were harshly deported within a very tight timeframe and for unjustifiable reasons. Among them were some who had been seriously threatened by the Taliban, and some who had escaped honor killings and domestic violence. 


Pakistan’s deportation process lacked transparency and accountability in protecting the safety, dignity and basic rights of refugees. One example of this was the robbing of deportees, and the jailing of minors who had entered the country legally and were registered by UNHCR. This is a major threat to the safety and psychological well being of asylum seekers who have nothing with which to live in Afghanistan, some of whom had never even lived in the country. 


Pakistan’s cruel and abusive policy has been widely condemned by human rights organizations and defenders, and the trauma can be expected to leave a long-standing scar on the lives of those Afghans being impacted. 


 

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