Human Rights Watch has unveiled a harrowing pattern of abuse against Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where border skirmishes have triggered a brutal deportation drive. Raids sweep through neighborhoods, snatching people from markets, schools, and workplaces, funneling them into holding centers and across the border against their will.
The scale is staggering: more than 146,000 deportations since 2023, accelerating post-April 1 amid Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes. Vulnerable groups—children, the elderly, journalists, and rights defenders—suffer most. Many lack documents because Pakistan halted renewals of registration cards last year, leaving even legal residents exposed.
Eyewitness accounts paint a grim picture. HRW spoke to victims arrested mid-errand, robbed of cash and phones, then coerced with ransom demands. Non-payers face swift deportation to an Afghanistan rife with Taliban reprisals. ‘Pakistani officials treat refugees as threats rather than those fleeing danger,’ said HRW’s Fereshta Abbasi. ‘This breaches international law against refoulement.’
Balochistan mirrors the crisis, with locals accusing the army of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. In one raid on Surkhab camp, 1,000 were rounded up, homes razed by bulldozers, and families torn apart—minors shipped back solo. Fear grips communities: no hospital visits, no schooling, constant dread of midnight knocks.
Deportees recount chaos at Chaman crossing, abandoned without family news. Health plummets as medical aid is denied sans visas; mental trauma festers in hiding. HRW demands immediate halts to deportations, police probes, and global pressure on Pakistan to uphold UN anti-torture commitments.
As tensions simmer, Pakistan’s refugee policy risks humanitarian catastrophe. The world watches, urging restraint before more lives are shattered.
