NOSMohammad Isa and his family
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:00
Aletta Andrew
South Asia correspondent
Aletta Andrew
South Asia correspondent
A major exodus has been going on in Pakistan for weeks. An estimated 1.7 million Afghans without valid residence papers are being deported from the country. If they do not leave voluntarily, they are arrested and deported. Many of them have lived in the country for decades and have no home or family to return to in Afghanistan.
Mohammad Isa is one of them. He has lived in the Pakistani city of Quetta for ten years with his wife and seven children, most of whom were born in Pakistan. Everything at his house is ready to go. “If it were up to me, we would stay,” he says.
Isa fled the violence ten years ago when the Afghan army fought the Taliban with the support of NATO troops. Now that the Taliban are in power, Isa no longer fears violence. However, he is very concerned about the future of his children. “Two daughters and two sons go to school here. If we go back to Afghanistan now, my children’s lives will be ruined.”
There is no secondary or higher education for girls and women under the Taliban, and women are excluded from most jobs. But Isa, who works night shifts as a security guard in Quetta, also sees no future for his sons. “I can still find work here. But even as a day laborer I won’t be able to get anything there. There is nothing. Living in the city is too expensive. What am I going to do with my children there?”
Fake documents in detention camp
At the beginning of October, Pakistan announced that all Afghans without valid papers had to leave by November 1. People who left voluntarily were allowed to take items and an amount of money with them. Since November 2, others have been at risk of arrest and being taken across the border empty-handed.
There is a detention camp just outside the city of Quetta. Journalist Hazif Ullah Sherani and cameraman Gul Zada visited the camp on behalf of the NOS and were given brief access, while around 200 people were being held there. Among them were many Afghans who showed a valid residence document, such as a UN registration document or an Afghan citizen card. These were digitally checked on site. “The reality is that many people have had fake documents made, criminals are making money from this,” said Jan Achakzai, the interim information minister of Balochistan province.
NOSThe detention camp near Quetta
Many others have never had residence papers. Mohammad Ullah, for example, who has to leave Pakistan after forty years. He was among the first generation of refugees who fled the violence following the 1979 Soviet invasion. At the time, five million Afghans fled to neighboring countries Pakistan and Iran. “We haven’t had it as tough as today in forty years,” he says from the arrest van that takes him to the border.
Sher Khan and his wife, daughters and daughter-in-law are also deported. They fled two years ago, after the Taliban took over. He does not want to say why they fled, as he will be registered by the Taliban after arrival. “We sold all our stuff at the time to start over in Pakistan. So we have no house there and no money.”
Hundreds of thousands of refugees
About 600,000 Afghans fled to Pakistan after the Taliban took power. None of them received valid residence papers and most of their visas have expired. The people who are now returning and being deported are mainly poor and less educated. About 25,000 Afghans waiting in Pakistan for US visas, including human rights activists and journalists, will not be deported, authorities say.
At the western border town of Chaman, a 2.5-hour drive from Quetta, there is a long line of trucks full of families and their belongings waiting to cross every day. A tent camp has been set up where people can stay until they can cross. Those who are deported must first be registered. Medical checks are also done.
Back and forth
Once you’re back in Afghanistan, you can’t just come back. Since November 1, all Afghans who want to go to Pakistan must have a passport and visa. Until then it was possible to go back and forth with a local identity card and this was very common for trade and short family visits.
With thousands of people arriving every day at both Chaman and the northern Torkham border, the Taliban are struggling to accommodate them. Aid agencies report a lack of food, water, sanitation, tents and blankets.
Mohammad Isa also knows that this awaits him and his family. “I have no house and will have to live in a tent. There is no school in a refugee camp. Life will be miserable there in the cold winter.”
With the collaboration of Hazif Ullah Sherani and Gul Zada.
2023-11-21 21:00:19
#Afghans #leave #Pakistan
