Pakistan's Afghans face “strengthening abuse strategies”, report says deportation deadline is imminent
Afghan refugees face “strengthening abuse tactics” in Pakistan, while ongoing pressure to expel illegal foreigners and Afghan citizen card holders, a new report says.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued an alert in a report released Wednesday. The NGO called on the international community to prevent the deportation of people back to Afghanistan, where the Taliban was persecuted, while also highlighting reports of human rights violations in Pakistan.
“Afghanistan is not a safe country,” said Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan researcher at HRW. “If you are now a female protester in Pakistan, on March 31, you have the potential to be deported or forced to return to Afghanistan.”
Abasi said HRW has documented cases of Afghan women's rights advocates arbitrarily detained and tortured by the Taliban. NGOs have also heard reports of women killed or disappeared under the regime.
“The risk is really high, and I really hope that the international community will take concrete actions to ensure that Afghans at risk are not deported.”
Human rights advocates, journalists and former government personnel are particularly at risk, the report said.
It also cites the horrible economic situation: In Afghanistan “unemployment, broken health care system and a gradual reduction in foreign aid), all deported people will have difficulty in survival.
Pakistan deports all undocumented Afghans after March 31
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s interior ministry called on all “illegal foreigners” and Afghan citizen card holders to leave the country by March 31. It will be deported from April 1.
Afghans represent the majority of Pakistan's foreign population. The United Nations (United Nations) estimates that the country has 3.7 million. Many evacuated Afghanistan for decades during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s, while others crossed the border in August 2021, fled the Taliban after the group seized power.
According to the United Nations, more than 800,000 Afghans currently hold an Afghan citizenship card in Pakistan. Another one issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is about 1.3 million officially registered and holding a separate residence card. It is unclear how these holders will be affected.
Afghan immigrants (whether recorded or not) are afraid of being reported by arbitrary arrests and extortion, facing a March 31 government deadline, fearing to keep their homes in Pakistan, said Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan researcher at U.S. Human Rights Watcher.
Pakistan announced its latest repatriation plan for October 2023 for the first time, after the economic crisis deepened the growth of anti-immigration sentiment. Its government also cites national security issues and accuses many Afghans of their involvement in terrorism. Recently, tensions on the Afghan-Pakistan border have led to clashes between its security forces, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.
The United Nations said that since 2023, more than 800,000 Afghans in Pakistan have returned to their homes or been forcibly fired. According to a report from that year, most people who returned believed that the detention of Pakistani authorities was the reason for their departure.
Afghan sports journalist Masood Rahmati told HRW that the report said that even Afghans who are in UNHCR or who have valid residence cards are not safe.
House raid, ransomware reported in Pakistan
According to the report, Pakistani police raided the house, beat and arbitrarily detained people and confiscated refugee documents including residence permits.
Afghan refugees say authorities will take them or their relatives to the police station and ask for bribes to allow them to stay in the country.
HRW said that forced returns, deportation and deportation could constitute a violation of Pakistan’s obligations as a political party to the United Nations Convention against Torture.
The group said it had received reports of police arresting Afghan children on their way to school or in schools and in workplaces and markets. Pakistani authorities are also allegedly tearing families apart through deportation.
It said: “Even if only one family member lacks the necessary legal documents, the police may force all family members to leave or expel half of the families, while some of them, including children, remain in Pakistan.”
“Representatives of the aid organization said that children under the age of 18 remained in Pakistan without parents or were deported to Afghanistan alone.”
Call for preventing any retaliation against returning to Afghans
“Pakistan officials should immediately stop coercing Afghans to return home and give those facing deportation a chance to seek protection,” said Elaine Pearson, director of HRW Asia.
“The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should prevent any retaliation from returning to Afghans and revoke the abuse policy of women and girls.”
More than 70% of the returnees to Afghans are women and children, According to the United Nations. These include middle school-age girls and women who are no longer eligible for education, as the Taliban prohibits girls from going to school for the past sixth grade. The group also bans women from entering most areas of public life as part of a harsh measure taken after the imposition of power in August 2021.
“My 13-year-old daughter once went to school and couldn't go here,” Noor Mohamad, who was deported to Nimrodz province in Afghanistan, told HRW.
“It’s a very difficult life.”
As of January, 22 million people in Afghanistan (almost half of the population) needed emergency food aid and other assistance, with an estimated 3.5 million children “acute malnutrition.”
“The Afghan economic system collapsed. … There is no health care system,” Abasi said.
Canada's surveillance situation is “close”
The group calls for Afghan refugee reception countries, including Canada, to maintain an insecure position in Afghanistan.
“The countries that promise to resettle high-risk Afghans should respond to the urgency of the situation in Pakistan and speed up these cases,” Pearson said.
Canada has occupied more than 55,000 since August 2021 Afghans and are working to deal with Canadian immigration, refugee and citizenship spokesman Rémi Larivière said in a statement to CBC News on Tuesday that Canadian immigration, refugee and citizenship spokesman Rémi Larivière said reprocessing eligible applications received under various Afghan special measures.
He said Canada is closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan and is “actively involved” with the Pakistani government to resettle Afghans.
“IRCC is communicating with customers when we realize how they change in the situation,” he said.
“The crisis of this scale means that there is always a need for Canada’s resettlement than we can provide.”
