The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that more than 500,000 Afghans had left Pakistan in the four months after Islamabad issued an order for unregistered migrants to depart or risk being arrested.
The UN migration agency has released updated statistics showing that between September 15, 2023 and January 13, 2024, 500,200 Afghans departed Pakistan.
In the days before Islamabad’s November 1 deadline for the 1.7 million Afghans it said were residing in Pakistan illegally, and as authorities opened dozens of holding centers, the majority hurried to the border.
“Since the initial peak around November 1, the number of individuals crossing these official border points have consistently decreased but remains higher than pre-September 15th,” an IOM statement said.
Pakistan defended the crackdown by pointing to security concerns in its regions bordering Afghanistan and pressure on its struggling economy.
“Some Afghans forced to return may be at risk of persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention and/or torture or ill-treatment,” the UN’s Afghan mission said in a report on Monday.
A dispute over document requirements for commercial drivers has kept the major border crossing between the two countries closed for the tenth day in a row.
The argument revolves on requests for drivers from both sides to have visas and passports papers many Afghans do not have as Pakistan pushes down on cross-border activities.
An unnamed border officer said that more than 400 trucks were stuck on the Pakistani side of the Torkham crossing on Monday.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have grown increasingly fraught in recent months, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban government of failing to root out militants staging attacks in Pakistan from their soil. Kabul has always rejected the allegations.
Over the previous forty years, millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan, including some 600,000 since the Taliban overthrew the US-backed government and established its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Several of the Afghans who were entering Afghanistan for the first time as a result of Islamabad’s expulsion plan had spent their whole lives in Pakistan.
In a nation grappling with one of the greatest humanitarian crises globally, migrants have gotten meager aid from the government and non-governmental organizations since arriving.
