LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — A group of migrants deported to Afghanistan accused Pakistani police of confiscating their belongings during forced deportations, leaving them destitute.
Raz Mohammad, who had lived in Pakistan for 15 years, said he was expelled from the country with his family and claimed that police took 40,000 Afghanis (about $140) from him. “I was the breadwinner for my family of nine. After living in Pakistan for so long, the police took everything from us and deported us empty-handed,” Mohammad said from his new home in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province.
“We don’t even have food for the night, and I’m paying 1,500 Afghanis in rent for this house,” he added, highlighting the difficult conditions his family now faces.
Mohammad’s two eldest children, Fida Mohammad and Noor Bibi, were both attending school in Pakistan, but their education has been interrupted since their return to Afghanistan. Noor Bibi, who had reached the sixth grade in Pakistan, is now barred from continuing her studies due to the Taliban’s restrictions on female education.
“We have nothing to eat now,” Noor Bibi said, expressing frustration with her family’s dire situation. Her brother, Fida, echoed her concerns. “We lived in Pakistan for 15 years, and now we have come to Afghanistan with nothing. We are paying rent and asking for help.”
Pakistan began deporting undocumented Afghan migrants in November 2022, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcing that over 540,000 people have been expelled. However, a recent United Nations report indicated that nearly 700,000 migrants returned to Afghanistan between September 2023 and July 2024.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, over 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan in search of refuge from the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in their home country.
