April 8, 2025
By Islam Gul Afridi
TORKHAM
Fifty year old Zar Bibi has finally reached the Torkham border, after she began her travel from Rawalpindi last evening. The widow is accompanied with eight other members of her family, and much like all the other Afghan women, has been bearing the brunt of this unwanted relocation.
For now her biggest worry is how she can care for their possessions and belongings – which are scattered around in open air – and ensure they are safely transported across the border.
There are now hundreds at the Torkham border, but for women and children there are no WASH facilities (Water and Safe Hygiene), a basic need. There is hardly any shelter under the blazing sun and little clean drinking water. Because they are not very well off, Zar Bibi and her family cannot afford a car to rent, to ensure that their belongings remain protected during the move. They were forced to sell their household belongings for a loss – less than half their price.
At Torkham the weather is hot and some of the family are sick.
The women of these families must rely on luck. In Afghanistan they have nothing even close to a home – and toilet facilities seem to be a luxury. Drinking water is also expected to be minimal.
According to the provincial Department of Home and Tribal Affairs, more than 20,000 Afghan refugees have left for Afghanistan through the Torkham border from April 1 to 7. According to the agency, 12,982 refugees have returned from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, 5,435 from Punjab, 1,573 from Islamabad, 38 from Azad Kashmir, one from Gilgit-Baltistan, 44 from Sindh and 55 from Sialkot. Since September 2023, 485,000 more Afghan refugees have left Pakistan for Afghanistan. There is no arrangement to help the returning refugees and they are waiting under the open sky to cross the border.
Sadly, the majority of the Afghan refugees returning happen to be women and children, but the lack of basic facilities for them has added to the hardships of the displaced Afghans.
Aminullah reached Torkham with his family 15 hours ago, from Islamabad, and his journey here was not an easy one. On one side he had problems with his vehicle and money, and on the other their six year old child has been sufferng from severe pain throughout the night.
“My children have been living in immense fear because of police operations,” he says.
Two of his five children are suffering from a blood disorder that requires frequent blood transfusions.
“I have been working day and night to support my family and children. Both of my children were being treated at the PIMS hospital in Islamabad, but now he is worried.
“More than the fate of my home and business, I am scared about how they will get the right treatment,” he says.
For now, a local hotel owner has given Aminullah’s family a room to stay in to protect them from the heat. His six-year-old son Faheem has red marks all over his body because of a deficiency of white-blood cells. He says that at night due to a lack of these blood cells, the child starts to feel tired and suffers from pain in his joints.
“It causes me so much grief to see him suffer, and see the marks on his body,” he says. The deficiency also causes a swelling in the joints and in case of injury, the bleeding does not stop.
“After we reached Torkham, we could not sleep the entire night, as my child started suffering from severe pain.”
Syed Muhammad travelled from Chakwal in Punjab and is now at Torkham with his family too. He has eight children. His children – and the women too – have been very scared due to police action, especially as women and children have also been arrested by the police and put imprisoned.
“Whenever the kids used to see a black car in the street, they ran home afraid that they would be picked up by the law enforcement agencies,” he says.
Officials of international aid agencies in Torkham have said that no assistance is being provided to Afghan refugees – including those who have been illegally settled in Pakistan as well as those with the Afghan ACC cards. They said that these same people go to Afghanistan and are helped by various aid agencies there.