The closure of five major border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan entered its 19th day on Thursday, cutting off vital transit routes and leaving thousands of passengers and hundreds of trucks stranded.
At the crossing in Torkham, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Afghan travelers huddled at the checkpoint, unable to return home or access urgent medical care. “Patients are here. We’ve waited for weeks. They help us a little — but we simply want the border opened,” said one traveler, Burhan al‑Din, describing the desperate situation for families stuck on the Pakistani side.
In one account, Abdullah — a man waiting with his elderly mother and children — said: “It’s been twenty days. We face hunger, illness, fear. We just hope the road is reopened.”
A standstill in trade
The prolonged shutdown has had far‑reaching consequences for commerce: Pakistani authorities say at least 5,000 trucks loaded with produce, fresh fruit and vegetables are immobilized at the closed crossings. According to trade‑industry estimates, losses run into the tens of millions of dollars. One industry spokesman told Arab News that “the border closure is not only hurting Pakistan‑Afghanistan trade but also affecting exports to Central Asia, causing daily losses of millions of dollars.”
Afghanistan, land‑locked and heavily dependent on Pakistani transit for imports, has been especially hard hit. Traders say perishables are decaying and caravans of cargo are parked indefinitely, undermining both countries’ economies.
Diplomatic fallout and the security backdrop
The border embargo follows intense clashes in October between Pakistani forces and the Taliban, the most serious since 2021, and comes amid the collapse of four‑day talks in Istanbul aimed at resolving the conflict.
One Pakistani security official told Reuters that the border routes were shut in response to what Islamabad described as Pakistani Taliban sanctuaries in Afghan territory. The Taliban countered that the “TTP” (Tehrik‑i‑Taliban Pakistan) is Pakistan’s internal issue and that Afghan soil will not be used for attacks — but refused to offer the guarantees Pakistan demanded.
Pakistan has held the talks as a prerequisite for reopening the crossings; but with negotiations stalled and both sides digging in, the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.
Humanitarian crisis at the frontier
For ordinary migrants, the border closure has become a survival test. Many of the stranded reported diminished access to food and clean water, and families with sick members said hospitals in Pakistan were refusing to admit them without documentation. Afghan women and children make up a large share of those waiting at checkpoints, while medical cases that require cross‑border treatment go untreated.
Pakistan has stated that reopening the crossings will depend on “security reviews” and meaningful commitments by the Taliban to sever links with militant groups targeting Pakistani territory. Until then, trade routes will remain blocked and humanitarian pressures will mount.
Analysts say the economic consequences will stretch beyond the immediate region: Afghanistan’s supply chains and Pakistan’s export markets are both disrupted. The longer the border remains closed, the greater the chance that the impasse will draw in international agencies and complicate already tense regional relations.
This comes as based on data by the Taliban-run refugees committee, Pakistan has deported over 21,000 migrants from various border crossings so far this week.
