In October, Pakistan’s government issued an order calling for the expulsion of all undocumented refugees, setting November 1 as the official start date for the mass exodus. The initiative primarily targets the 1.7 million undocumented Afghan refugees living in the country, many of whom have resided in Pakistan since the 1980s.
For most, the return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will mean a return to life under violent oppression amidst an intensifying humanitarian crisis. For the thousands of Afghan women and girls forced to leave Pakistan, it will mean an institutionally enforced ban on work and education.
The order comes as a reaction to the worsening diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan after Pakistan accused the Taliban of housing the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) militant group on Afghan land.
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar cited security concerns for the mandate, referencing an increase in terror attacks from the TTP. Kakar calls the expulsion a “repatriation plan” and continues to use Pakistani immigration laws to justify the nationwide eviction.
The U.S. government, the U.N. and several global refugee agencies have urged Pakistan to reverse its decision, emphasizing that tens of thousands of Afghan refugees will face direct consequences for previous opposition to the Taliban regime.
Even the Taliban has voiced humanitarian concerns as the Pakistani government continues to enforce mass involuntary deportation under threat of police action. Though Taliban leadership has encouraged the return of Afghan citizens, the group has also criticized the unfair treatment of the fleeing refugees by Pakistani authorities, who have initiated a harsh crackdown on Afghans still living in the country.
Since November 1, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forced to make the difficult journey back to their home country amid unsafe conditions, a lack of resources and the looming threat of the Taliban. A slew of Afghan children who were born and raised in Pakistan and maintain only a limited knowledge of the language and culture of their family’s home country will arrive as foreigners. This new, massive population of Afghan refugees will only add stress to an already unstable Taliban regime.
The Taliban regained control of the country after the United States withdrew its military from Afghanistan in 2020, necessitating a transition from an insurgent militant group to a makeshift government. Administrative challenges have plagued the internationally unrecognized government as they struggle to maintain quality of life for its citizens. Additionally, the Taliban’s Islamist fundamentalist policies continue to restrict the human rights of its citizens, many of whom had achieved a higher degree of social mobility and freedom during the U.S. occupation.
The consequences for women in Afghanistan have been devastating. Afghan women are now prohibited from working, attending and teaching at universities, and most girls are barred from achieving secondary school education. Moreover, women are banned from several public spaces, including parks and gyms, over concerns of improper gender segregation. Political protests and demonstrations are invariably met with violent consequences. These are the conditions to which Pakistan will forcibly deport over a half million Afghan women.
Pakistan’s Afghan women will undoubtedly lose the educational and occupational opportunities they may have achieved in Pakistan. Forcing a significant refugee population back into a perilous and volatile environment that is Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will inevitably pose a threat to the safety and autonomy of the women and girls involved. This “repatriation project” risks a severe humanitarian crisis that will only see compounding consequences for Afghan women. Pakistan is risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and over a million Afghans to send a message to the Taliban, an act the international community may not readily forgive them for.