Thousands of people continue to cross the border back into Afghanistan every day since the deadline set by Pakistani authorities for undocumented immigrants to return to their country under threat of expulsion expired on November 1. Some of the returnees went into exile after the Taliban came to power in August 2021. Others had lived in Pakistan for “more than 30 years,” according to humanitarian workers on the ground, and had to return with children and grandchildren who had never set foot in their homeland. “I use the adjective ‘terrible’ to describe what is happening: people returning to a place they don’t want to return to, often with nothing,” explains Thamindri de Silva, national director of the NGO World Vision in Afghanistan, in a telephone interview with this newspaper after his visit to the Afghan border crossing at Torkham on the border with Pakistan.
“Before they cross, they take away all their belongings, including jewelry and money, and give them only 100 dollars (about 94 euros) to leave Pakistan,” denounces De Silva, an accusation also made by UNHCR – Employee Caroline Gluck (of the UN Refugee Agency) confirmed after visiting the same border crossing. “The refugees have told us that they have been deprived of everything,” meaning that they arrive without the means to survive in a country where 15 million people – out of a population of around 40 million – are already dependent on humanitarian aid, he explains in a conversation. via phone.
Nevertheless, Gluck continues, they decide to leave Pakistan because “the authorities’ punishment for those who stay seems very harsh.” “One woman told me that she came because she was told that she was would destroy, burn and demolish her house if she didn’t leave; others were threatened with prison,” he explains. Humanitarian organizations and Afghan refugees report that there is a massive arrest campaign in the country to force the departure of those who do not have residency permits, about 1.7 million Afghans of the estimated 4.4 million living in Pakistan.
Helai, a young Afghan woman who currently continues to live in Pakistan despite not having a visa, confirms this persecution campaign. “Afghans in Pakistan face many risks. The police mistreat us on the streets. If they stop you, they’ll take you away [a comisaría] And they take your money and your jewelry. Anyone who does not have a visa will be deported. They don’t care about separating a mother from her son or a son from his mother,” he laments in an audio recording on WhatsApp.
The authorities of the Taliban regime and the International Organization for Migration manage arrivals, register returnees, try to make it easier for them to travel to other cities and set up tents for those arriving, Gluck confirms. Although there is no exact data on how many people have returned to Afghanistan, Pakistan’s interim prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar announced on Wednesday that “around 252,000” people had already left the country, the vast majority of whom are estimated to be women. “Without alternatives and with their lives turned upside down, there are families who improvise shelter in the dry riverbed near the border because there are neither supplies for everyone nor enough latrines, but because the winter rains are imminent “Is at every corner “The risk is enormous,” warns De Silva.
Afghan refugees on a bus after crossing the Torkham Pass to enter the country on November 4. SAMIULLAH POPAL (EFE)
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The choice of moment for the deportations, which the Pakistani authorities justify with the increase in terrorist attacks for which they blame the Taliban, “couldn’t be less opportune,” says Gluck. “The winter in Afghanistan is brutal, last year was the coldest in 15 years and temperatures fell to 30 degrees below zero in some places. And if you don’t have shelter or money to keep warm, the situation is very difficult,” he emphasizes.
In addition to not having enough money to settle in the country, “many families arrive separated,” laments Da Silva, who recalls the case of a woman who has just returned alone with her eight children because her husband was imprisoned in Pakistan. ” “I asked this woman what her plan was and she didn’t tell me anything, she didn’t know what to do,” says the experienced humanitarian worker, pointing out the particularly difficult situation for women in Afghanistan, which has been threatened by the Taliban regimes were banned. Work in most sectors.
The “uprooting” suffered by Afghan refugees is overwhelming, humanitarian organizations agree. “I met a family of ten whose mother had lived in Pakistan for 40 years, and their children and grandchildren were all born in this country,” says Gluck. This UNHCR worker was told: “Many had jobs in Karachi but were forced to leave their jobs overnight to return to a country they had not seen in decades or had never visited.” “You have to start from scratch, because they have nothing and their main concern is to find work to support their family and pay the rent of a house and daily life needs,” he adds.
“Prisoners” in Pakistan
Helai and Roya, two Afghan graduates of Hispanic philology, both 23 years old, have taken the risk of staying in Pakistan for the time being. They fled to this country in December last year, just days after the Taliban banned women from studying at university. They did it without their degrees because when they tried to collect them at Kabul University, they were pushed out by the Taliban. None of them have visas for Pakistan because when they tried to renew the permit with which they entered the country, they were refused.
Since November 1, they have been claiming that they are living “prisoners” and cannot leave the house “for fear of being detained” by the Pakistani authorities, Roya says in a WhatsApp audio. “Our situation is terrible. Helai and I tried everything we could to sort out our situation and get a visa, but there was no way. The Pakistani government does not issue visas to Afghans. “The Pakistanis don’t rent our houses either,” explains Roya, who lives hidden with her friend in the house of another Afghan woman who has a residence permit in Pakistan and can buy food there.
Returning to Afghanistan is not an option. “We can’t go back. Our lives are in danger because the Taliban have threatened us because of our contacts with journalists from Spain and many other countries. It has been almost a year since we requested an appointment at the Spanish Embassy [para solicitar protección internacional] “But unfortunately he hasn’t called us for this appointment yet,” explains Helai.
If they return, the organizations interviewed insist, they would do so in a country that is “accumulating one crisis after another.” On October 7, the same day that Hamas attacked southern Israel, several earthquakes struck in Afghanistan in the west of the country, leaving thousands dead and thousands homeless. “The war in Gaza has overshadowed the situation in Afghanistan,” protests Gluck, who ensures that the resources to deal with the humanitarian crisis do not reach this Asian country. “All UN agencies in the country, including UNHCR, have serious funding problems,” he admits. World Vision also suffers this setback. “We don’t have a single donor,” de Silva complains. And he concludes: “But the lives of Afghans go on and every day they have to face a new problem.”
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