AS expected, the government of Pakistan is moving ahead with its plan to forcibly repatriate Afghan Citizenship Card holders still residing in the country. It may be recalled that it had earlier announced March 31 as the deadline for ‘voluntary repatriation’, after which stragglers would be deported. By making good on that warning, Islamabad has chosen to ignore repeated calls from humanitarian organisations — including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose representative in Pakistan spoke on Eid to advocate a more compassionate approach and to give refugees more time to return. This decision is the state’s prerogative, and clearly, there’s little anyone else can do about it. As the Foreign Office keenly reminded critics of Islamabad’s Afghan policy around two weeks earlier, Pakistan is not bound by the Refugee Convention, and everything it has done for Afghan refugees has been done ‘out of the goodness of its heart’. Therefore, views like UNHCR Representative Philippa Candler’s, who observed that “Over time, Afghan refugees have become woven into the fabric of Pakistan’s society,” find no currency in Islamabad, where policy hawks have chosen to see Afghans as outsiders and an existential threat.

Now that it has chosen this path, the least the government can do is ensure that all Afghans who are subject to deportation orders are treated humanely and respectfully on their journey back. There is a very strong possibility they will not be, and given their vulnerable status, there are bound to be predators, both state officials and civilians, looking to exploit their situation. The authorities must go out of their way to ensure that deportees’ lives, property and dignity are protected and that they are given ample opportunity to set their affairs in order. Many Afghans came to this country empty-handed. During the time they spent here, some of them have managed to scrape a little of their lives back together. The Pakistani state’s decision to return them to where they fled must not come across as their punishment for being Afghan. If they are being returned ‘home’, as the Pakistani authorities like to frame their decision to deport them, then they must be given reason to feel so. The state can be as firm as it needs to be in order to implement its policy, but it must strive not to do anything cruel. That would help no one.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2025