April 10, 2025
By Hazrat Ali
CHAMAN
Forty-year-old Ghulam Hazrat has never seen Afghanistan. He was born in Karachi and for the next four decades spent his life living in different parts of the city—first with his parents, then after their deaths in Suraj Goth with his own children. Working as a local bus driver for a decade, life was routine and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until one night when Ghulam returned home he found his house eerily empty—his entire family was gone.
Ever since the government’s deadline for Afghan refugees expired on March 31, police and Levies forces across various districts have been conducting raids to detain them. Nearly 78 Afghan nationals from different parts of the province have been transferred to the Chaman Holding Camp.
“Who will look after my sick children?”
Forty-year-old Rahmatullah was arrested while buying medicine for his ill child. “I had just finished paying for the medication when police surrounded me,” he recounts. “First, they took me to jail, and then directly brought me here to the Chaman camp. My two children are still sick at home—who will take care of them now?”
“Everything I own remains behind”
Afghan refugee Allah Muhammad worked as a nomadic shepherd in Balochistan before being detained by the Levies force in Toba Achakzai while grazing his flock.
“My flock, my goats, my home—everything is still in Toba Achakzai,” he says anxiously. “I’ve been left with nothing.”
Meanwhile, a strike called by Akhtar Mengal’s Baloch National Party (BNP-M) and the resulting roadblocks across Balochistan have made the return journey even more harrowing for Afghan refugees. Abdul Ghani, who traveled from Karachi with his family, recounts: “We endured five days on the road. There was no food or water along the way. And now, even in this camp, there are no facilities.”
Near the Bab-e-Dosti border crossing, the district administration has established a database holding camp. Officials maintain that food and water have been arranged for returning Afghan refugees. But refugees like Abdul Ghani contradict this.
“After such a long journey, we were given neither food nor clean drinking water.”
According to NADRA officials, more than 3,000 Afghan citizens have crossed into Afghanistan since the government’s deadline passed, including a significant number of women and children.
The United Nations and the Taliban government in Kabul have expressed deep concern over the refugees’ plight and urged Pakistan to halt the deportations.
Vulnerable people face an uncertain future
Among those being forcibly returned, the most vulnerable cross sections of society – the women, including female students, and artists or musicians—face the greatest uncertainty: knowing that opportunities for them in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are virtually nonexistent.
In cities like Peshawar and Quetta, more than 500 Afghan refugees have built livelihoods centered around music and the arts. Most fled to Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, seeking refuge where their talents could survive. Now, deportation threatens not just their careers but their safety too.
These refugees are not statistics—they are individuals, with families who have built lives in Pakistan over generations. Now, with little warning, they find themselves uprooted and sent to a country many have never known. Their stories reveal the human cost of political deadlines and highlight the urgent need for compassionate migration policies.