ISLAMABAD — Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement on Wednesday said Pakistani authorities have ramped up pressure on Afghan refugees, using abusive tactics to coerce thousands into returning to Afghanistan, where they face the threat of Taliban persecution, extreme economic hardship, and a collapsing healthcare system.
The rights group warned that Pakistan’s mass deportations and forced returns may violate international law, as many of the displaced risk persecution or worse upon arrival in Afghanistan.
HRW cited reports of Pakistani police raiding Afghan homes, beating and detaining refugees arbitrarily, and demanding bribes to allow them to remain in Pakistan. The United Nations has also reported that most Afghans returning cite fear of detention as the primary reason for leaving.
On January 31, 2025, Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior announced that Afghans without official residency documents must leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi or face deportation. Afghans holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards—previously considered valid refugee documentation—must leave by June 30.
A previous wave of expulsions between September 2023 and January 2024 forced over 800,000 Afghans—many born in Pakistan or living there for decades—to return to Afghanistan. Since November 2024, Pakistani authorities have renewed the crackdown, with over 70 percent of those deported being women and children, including girls barred from school under the Taliban’s rule.
HRW interviewed 35 Afghan refugees in Pakistan and several recent returnees to Afghanistan, as well as representatives of aid organizations working on both sides of the border.
Many reported being arrested despite holding valid documents. Masood Rahmati, an Afghan journalist, said police tore up his official PoR card and deported him.
“We had PoR cards, but the police cut them and sent us to Afghanistan,” Rahmati said.
Others described being forced from their homes without notice. Zahra, a refugee in Islamabad, said police arrived at 4 a.m., raiding homes as if looking for criminals.
“They don’t care about children or elderly people,” she said. “They brought trucks and arrested people. If you don’t open the door, they’ll enter through the windows.”
Afghans forcibly returned to their home country face widespread unemployment, food shortages, and lack of access to healthcare, HRW said.
Women and girls face the harshest restrictions, banned from education, many forms of employment, and even traveling without a male guardian.
“There’s a school in front of our house in Kandahar, but girls are not allowed to attend,” said Hamidullah, who had lived in Pakistan for 40 years before being deported. “I have five daughters who used to go to school.”
Those affiliated with the former Afghan government are at particular risk. HRW and the United Nations have documented cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture of former security personnel.
Ahmad M., a former Afghan police officer, was deported to Afghanistan in November 2023 and immediately detained by the Taliban.
“Every night, they told me: ‘We will kill you tonight,’ but they didn’t,” he said. “I was beaten in the National Directorate of Security prison. I was released after two months, but many of my colleagues have disappeared.”
The Taliban takeover in 2021 led to an economic collapse, with millions of Afghans losing jobs and foreign aid plummeting.
HRW cited UN data showing that 22 million Afghans—nearly half the population—require emergency food aid, and 3.5 million children are acutely malnourished.
It also shows that women and girls have limited access to healthcare, as Taliban restrictions prevent many female doctors from working.
“There’s no electricity, no fan. Our tent has holes, and the floor gets wet. My kids sleep hungry,” one recent deportee, Mohmadullah, described the conditions in returnee camps.
HRW urged Pakistan to halt forced deportations and allow Afghan refugees to seek protection.
“Pakistani officials should immediately stop coercing Afghans to return home,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director.
The group also called on the Taliban to stop reprisals against returnees and to reverse their bans on women’s education and employment.
HRW urged the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and other host countries to expedite resettlement for at-risk Afghans.
“Afghanistan is not safe for forced returns,” Pearson said. “Countries that pledged to resettle vulnerable Afghans should respond urgently to the crisis unfolding in Pakistan.”
