638 Afghan Migrants Released from Pakistani Prisons and Returned Home

The Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has announced that during the current week, 638 Afghan migrants have been released from prisons in Pakistan and returned to Afghanistan.

According to a press release from the ministry’s media office, the returnees include families, single individuals, and several medical students who had been detained due to lack of legal residency documents in Pakistan and had spent varying lengths of time in prison.

Reports from the transit directorates indicate that 518 of these individuals entered Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing in Nangarhar province, while 120 others returned via the Spin Boldak crossing in Kandahar province—two major border points that see the highest movement of migrants between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The source stated that after registration and receiving initial humanitarian aid, the returning migrants were transferred to their main residential areas. In recent months, there has been an increase in the detention and deportation of Afghan migrants from Pakistan, with the forced return process continuing.