Pakistan Expels Afghan Families, Mistreatment, Coercion Reported

The government of Pakistan has forcibly expelled nearly 250 Afghan families, including those with legal documents, over the past week.

The newly expelled families have complained about the mistreatment by Pakistan’s police, stating that their lives had become increasingly difficult due to the oppression and coercion by the Pakistani authorities.

Bakht Jamal Gohar, head of migrant transfers at the Torkham crossing, told : “In one week, we had about 240 deportees, many of whom had documents. The Pakistani government expelled them and handed them over to us. There are families among them as well.”

Gul Rahman, a resident of Paktia who spent about 18 years in migration in Pakistan, stated that due to the continued oppression of Pakistan’s police, he was forced to return to his country empty-handed.

“I was deported in a situation where two of my children were sick, and now another is still unwell. Like me, there are around 700 to 800 people languishing in jails. The conditions there are very dire,” Gul Rahman told .

“Even those of us with smart migrant cards were harassed. They would tell us to do this or that. There were nightly patrols during which people were arrested. We couldn’t even sleep peacefully at night,” said Rahmat Sadat, another migrant expelled from Pakistan.

Several other Afghan migrants stated that Pakistani forces had illegally beaten them at the Torkham crossing and taken their money.

“I had gone for treatment but was deported. My treatment remains incomplete, and now I have no choice. Doctors have asked me to return there, but I cannot,” said Roman, a migrant expelled from Pakistan.

According to information from the Nangarhar department of Refugees and Repatriation, over the past year and a half, more than 66,000 families have returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham crossing alone, about 70% of whom have settled in Nangarhar.