Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure

Thousands of Afghans return from Pakistan amid pressure, UN and Taliban officials report, sparking concerns over forced deportations.

Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days, the United Nations and Taliban officials said, as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan.

Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 8,00,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad's campaign in recent years to repatriate Afghans.

Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling similar scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.

"In the last 2 days, 8,025 undocumented & ACC holders returned via Torkham & Spin Boldak crossings," the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.

"IOM stands ready to scale up its response at key border points with forced returns expected to surge in the coming days," it said.

Taliban officials also said thousands of people had crossed the border, but at lower rates than the IOM reported.

Refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told AFP that 6,000-7,000 Afghans had returned since the start of April, saying "more than a million Afghans might return".