Yousafzai: Forced Deportation of Afghan Migrants Is the Cost of Tensions with Taliban
Sami Yousafzai, a political and social activist, says the forced deportation of Afghan migrants from Pakistan is a consequence of political disputes between the Pakistani government and the Taliban administration; a conflict whose cost, he says, is borne by defenseless migrants.
Yousafzai stated that Islamabad had no prior significant issues with the migrants, but following tensions with the Taliban administration, it adopted a policy of “collective punishment,” forcing thousands to return involuntarily. He emphasized that this decision has most severely affected families who have lived in Pakistan for years.
According to the activist, the migrants who have returned to Afghanistan now face serious administrative challenges. The process of issuing identity cards and documentation for returnees is fraught with extensive problems. One returnee reported spending about 30,000 Afghanis traveling from a district to Kabul to follow up on his documents, yet his case remains unresolved.
Yousafzai also reported receiving information about “misconduct” at some census offices in northern provinces and said discriminatory treatment of returning Pashtuns has raised concerns regarding the protection of their civil rights. He stressed the need to guarantee equal rights for all returnees.
Currently, the returning migrants face dual pressures: on one side, they have been forced to leave Pakistan due to political pressures, and on the other, within Afghanistan, they are deprived of full access to fundamental rights such as identity cards and land ownership documents due to administrative corruption, ethnic discrimination, and arbitrary actions by some local Taliban officials. This issue calls for urgent and transparent intervention by authorities.
