July 21, 2026
By Islam Gul Afridi
LANDI KOTAL
Since the government given deadline of July 10, the number of Afghan refugees travelling from Pakistan to Afghanistan has risen sharply. At the holding camp established near the Pak-Afghan border in Landi Kotal, 4000 to 5000 Afghan nationals are being sent through Torkham on a daily basis, after completing the required legal formalities, while the center has the capacity to accommodate only 2000 people per day.
Among the six to seven refugee-repatriation centers set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Landi Kotal holding camp is the busiest, with the crowds growing larger by the day. Refugees at the camp say they have to wait for hours to obtain a token, while the lack of basic facilities — including intense heat, clean drinking water, food, and shade — is adding to their difficulties.
16-year-old returns home after three months in detention
After spending three months in detention, 16-year-old Syed Muhammad arrived at the Landi Kotal camp with his neighbors to travel to Afghanistan from Haripur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said his father and brother were in the business of buying and selling vehicles, while he himself was studying for his matriculation exams alongside a mobile-repairing course when police arrested him. By the time he was released, his entire family had already left for Afghanistan.
“When police tried to arrest my father and brothers, I saved them from arrest. Police then arrested me and kept me at an undisclosed location for four days so my family wouldn’t find out. Later, a case was registered against me. I had hoped to be released soon and join my family in Afghanistan, but I had to spend three months in jail doing hard labor. I don’t know whether the authorities will allow me to go to Afghanistan with these neighbors, since I have never even seen Afghanistan and have no contact with my family to know where they are,” Syed Muhammad said.
Another Afghan refugee, Syed Muhammad Agha, said he was living comfortably in Pakistan until now, but problems have since increased.
“We faced questioning and hassle at checkpoints, so we decided to go to Afghanistan to live in peace. There should be arrangements for water, food and shade at the center so that these problems can be reduced.”
‘Waiting their turn under the open sky’
Abdul Majeed belongs to Afghanistan’s Logar province. He used to run his own business in Lahore, but after the increase in police and security agency operations over the past several days, he was forced to travel to Landi Kotal late at night with his family from Lahore. Despite hours having passed, he still had not been issued a token. He said the entire process was extremely slow, and there was no shade arrangement outside despite the intense heat.
“Here, women, children, the elderly and even people with special needs, are waiting their turn under the open sky, with no sense of how long it will take,” he says. “There is no drinking water, no shade to escape the heat, and not even basic facilities like washrooms. On one hand, it has been made impossible to stay in Pakistan, and on the other, obstacles in the return process have multiplied the refugees’ problems many times over. We demand that the government provide facilities to the refugees who are returning,” Abdul Majeed told Voicepk.
Afghan refugees say that following the government’s tightening of the deportation process, a large number of families are being forced to return to Afghanistan out of fear of arrest and other legal action. According to them, police and security agency operations have also intensified in various cities.
Govt directives and action over bribery allegations
The provincial government had issued a statement strictly instructing police not to register cases against Afghan refugees, and to bring anyone arrested directly to the holding camp so they could be transferred to Afghanistan after completing all formalities. The statement also warned of strict action against police personnel over any complaints of bribery. Recently, the CCPO Peshawar suspended the SHO of Landi Kotal police station and a police official over allegations of taking bribes from Afghan refugees.
Provincial govt voices concern over closure of trade routes
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government says the decision to expel Afghan refugees is being carried out under federal government policy; however, the provincial government has also expressed concern over the economic impact of the trade routes with Afghanistan, which have remained closed for the past nine months, and the resulting disruption to border trade.
Provincial Information Minister Shafi Jan said Pakistan could play a mediating role between the United States and Iran, and that statements were also emerging about starting trade with India, yet all trade routes and movement of people with the Muslim neighboring country of Afghanistan have remained closed for the past nine months. He said imports and exports had benefited the people of both countries, but the closure of trade has hurt the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the most. According to him, the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had repeatedly written to the federal government requesting action to reopen trade routes with Afghanistan, but no progress had been made on this front. He said there would be no compromise on the country’s security, and that if armed interference is taking place in Pakistan, it must be stopped.
Thousands returning daily, facilities inadequate
According to the district administration, the return of Afghan refugees has accelerated markedly since July 10, with more than four thousand people leaving from the Landi Kotal holding camp and six to seven thousand from the remaining centers heading to Afghanistan via the Torkham border every day. Officials say that although the Landi Kotal holding camp has the capacity to serve around two thousand people a day, the number of arrivals often exceeds five thousand, resulting in long waits, intense heat and other hardships for the refugees.
Abdullah arrived in Landi Kotal with his family from Chitral the previous night, but had still not been issued a token for registration. He said that questioning and arrests at security checkpoints across various locations had increased over the past several weeks. “Life in Pakistan had become impossible to continue, and facilities here are next to nonexistent as well. We are being forced to return to our own country, but we have no home there, and we don’t know anything about our future.”
Six centers are operating in the province — Azakhel Nowshera, Nagoman Peshawar, Nasir Bagh Peshawar, Kohat, Landi Kotal, and two mobile vans in Peshawar. According to Khyber district officials, all the centers were established in locations with either large refugee populations or along their travel routes; however, a disproportionately large number of people end up coming to Landi Kotal, which is why the crowding is worse there. Officials said the Landi Kotal center has 24 NADRA counters with the capacity to process two thousand people per day, but the current daily figure often exceeds five thousand.
Since Pakistan began the process of repatriating undocumented and illegal Afghan nationals in September 2023, approximately 2,507,000 Afghan refugees and other Afghan nationals have returned to their country so far. This includes both those who returned voluntarily and those who were sent back under the government of Pakistan’s repatriation policy. According to the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the return process is continuing, with millions more Afghan nationals expected to return from Pakistan to Afghanistan in the coming months.