Afghans flee Pakistan as deadline looms

“I spent 45 memorable years here, but now it’s over. I’m very upset because my business is down. I’m worried about what we’re going to do over there (in Afghanistan) in the winter,” says Sakhi Gul, an Afghan living in Pakistan as the government has given 1.7 million Afghans it says are living illegally in the country until November 1 to leave voluntarily or be forcibly removed. 

The government says more than four million foreigners live in Pakistan, a vast majority of them Afghan nationals who sought refuge over the last four decades after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

More recently, after the Taliban regained power in 2021, Pakistani officials say between 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans migrated to Pakistan.

The Pakistani government claims nearly 1.7 million of those Afghans are undocumented.

Local media reports on Tuesday said nearly 100,000 Afghan immigrants have voluntarily gone back to their country from Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chaman crossing in Balochistan provinces this month.