Deportation plan comes under international scrutiny

WITH Pakistan all set to enforce its Afghan deportation policy from April 1, its phased plan to expel all documented and undocumented refugees has increasingly come under scrutiny in the international media, with several foreign media outlets pointing out the grave risks faced by the refugees, particularly the women, upon return.

By March 31, Pakistan plans to deport Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders, followed by the deportation of documented Afghans (those who have PoR) who — for now — have been allowed to stay in the country till June.

In its article, the UK-based Guardian termed the deportation policy ‘draconian’, saying that as many as “60 female activists and human rights defenders, who fled persecution after they spoke out for women’s rights and education or attended protests”, are also facing the threat of deportation to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Similarly, Australia’s ABC News, Al Jazeera, and CNN also pointed out the risks faced by these asylum seekers back home, particularly the women who do not abide by the hardline version of Islam imposed by the interim Afghanistan government.

According to The Guardian, one such refugee is Alim, who was forced to flee Afghanistan in December 2022 due to her activism. “If they send me back to Afghanistan, it only means death,” she told The Guardian.

Similar is the tale of four young girls, who aspire to be musicians, shared by Al Jazeera titled: ‘Four Afghan girl guitarists escaped the Taliban. Will they be forced back?’

All four were supposed to fly in the first week of Feb, but the Trump order dashed their hopes. Afraid of going back to Afghanistan, one of the girls, Yasmine, recalled a traumatic encounter with a Taliban soldier in a bazaar.

“I wasn’t wearing a mask and the Taliban pointed a gun at me asking me to wear it right there and then,” she says, referring to a face veil. “It was really hard, especially for women in Afghanistan,” she told Al Jazeera.

Amina, a rights activist, told ABC about her escape from Afghanistan where she used to advocate for equal rights for women.

Before she fled, she spoke on a radio programme in Jalalabad about equal rights. ‘The next day, I was bombarded with phone calls, told I had committed blasphemy and should be punished’, ABC quoted her as saying. It said that days after the interview, her husband was attacked, forcing him to flee to Pakistan as well.

Besides women and rights activists, another group which is particularly vulnerable to Taliban violence is those who worked with the US forces, but have now been seemingly abandoned by their ally. Touheed Khan told CNN that “in his time in the air force, ‘eight to 10’ of his colleagues were killed in ‘targeted explosions and shootings’ by the Taliban.”

But in its coverage, the Financial Times attempted to dig out the motive behind this expulsion drive. It quoted an anonymous diplomat who claimed that “declining international assistance was a significant point” in the move to increase deportations.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025