{"id":1000,"date":"2025-04-09T22:37:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bawarmedia.com\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2025-04-09T22:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:39:10","slug":"pakistan-moves-to-expel-800000-afghans-in-second-phase-of-deportation-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/pakistan-moves-to-expel-800000-afghans-in-second-phase-of-deportation-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"(English) Pakistan moves to expel 800,000 Afghans in second phase of deportation drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0628\u062e\u069a\u0646\u0647 \u063a\u0648\u0627\u0693\u0648\u060c \u062f\u0627 \u0645\u0637\u0644\u0628 \u06cc\u0648\u0627\u0632\u06d0 \u067e\u0647 English<\/a> \u0698\u0628\u0648 \u06a9\u06d0 \u0645\u0648\u062c\u0648\u062f \u062f\u06cc.<\/p>

\u201cI was 25 when I fled to Pakistan during the civil war. My entire family was killed in a series of rocket attacks. I escaped alone. Today, thank God, I have five children.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In this photo taken on April 8, 2025, an Afghan family departs Pakistan amid increasing pressure on Afghan refugees at risk of deportation.\/Negin Qayumi\/Bawar Media<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At precisely 7:00 a.m., Ahmad Khan, a 65-year-old Afghan migrant worker, begins his day on a construction site where he and four fellow Afghans are building a protective wall around a residential complex on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Though his hands are busy with brick and mortar, his mind often drifts to the uncertainty that shadows his future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was 25 when I fled to Pakistan during the civil war,\u201d he says, pausing to wipe the sweat from his graying beard. \u201cMy entire family was killed in a series of rocket attacks. I escaped alone. Today, thank God, I have five children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmad Khan supports a family of six\u2014his wife, two daughters, and three sons\u2014through daily labor in Pakistan\u2019s informal construction sector. Like many Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants, he lives with a constant sense of insecurity and fear, following the Pakistani government\u2019s decision to deport hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islamabad aims to expel 800,000 Afghans in the second phase of a campaign that has already removed a similar number since 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He refuses to be photographed, citing concerns over harassment by local authorities. \u201cIf they see my photo, they will hunt me down,\u201d he says, referring to frequent reports of police crackdowns on undocumented Afghan nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Afghanistan, he insists, is not an option. \u201cI don\u2019t even have a meter of land to live on back home. There is no work, only hardship. That\u2019s why all the youth are leaving for Pakistan and Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 24,000 Afghans have left since April 1, with more than 10,000 deported, according to the UN. In cities like Karachi and Peshawar, police raids and public warnings have prompted many to leave voluntarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this photo taken on April 8, 2025, an Afghan refugee family departs from Peshawar, Pakistan.\/Negin Qayumi\/Bawar Media<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights Watch has criticized Pakistan’s tactics, warning of persecution and hardship awaiting returnees in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Pakistan government is pushing forward with its plans to arbitrarily and forcibly expel Afghan nationals, including refugees and asylum seekers, as part of the opaque \u2018Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,\u2019 which adds to the plight of at-risk Afghans. Between September 2023 and February 2025, at least 844,499 Afghan nationals have been forced to return to Afghanistan, where they are at real risk of human rights violations by the Taliban amid a worsening humanitarian crisis,\u201d Amnesty International wrote on its website on April 4, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no clear path to legal status and limited rights in host countries, Ahmad Khan\u2019s story reflects the broader struggles of countless Afghan families who have been displaced by decades of war, economic collapse, and political instability.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0628\u062e\u069a\u0646\u0647 \u063a\u0648\u0627\u0693\u0648\u060c \u062f\u0627 \u0645\u0637\u0644\u0628 \u06cc\u0648\u0627\u0632\u06d0 \u067e\u0647 English \u0698\u0628\u0648 \u06a9\u06d0 \u0645\u0648\u062c\u0648\u062f \u062f\u06cc. \u201cI was 25 when I fled to Pakistan during the civil war. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,37,38,42,6],"tags":[47,46,44],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afg","category-afg-humanrights","category-world-humanrights","category-immigration","category-world","tag-must-read","tag-news","tag-pinned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bawarmedia.com\/ps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}