Thousands of Afghans crossed into their homeland from neighboring Pakistan along two major border crossings on October 31 as just hours before a deadline from Islamabad to leave the country or be deported.
Islamabad set November 1 for expelling more than 1.7 million undocumented foreigners, most of whom are Afghans, as part of an anti-migrant crackdown that has been criticized by human rights groups and the United Nations who have called on the Pakistani government to give the migrants time to register.
“Our preparations are complete,” Irshad Mohmand, a Pakistani official overseeing the expulsions along the Torkham border crossing, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.
Torkham connects western Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province with the eastern Afghan province of Jalalabad along the historic Khyber Pass. Afghanistan and Pakistan share a 2,610-kilometer border.
Mohmand said that Afghans will be allowed into their country after undergoing a registration process in which their fingerprints and biodata will be collected. Authorities in Torkham have so far seen the return of more than 4,000 Afghan families into their country.
They are leaving after the Pakistani Interior Ministry announced on October 3 that all undocumented immigrants in Pakistan had to leave the country within 28 days.
As a result, about 60,000 Afghans had left Pakistan by October 27, according to the United Nations. Many of them cited a fear of arrest in Pakistan as the main reason for going back.
"We'd live here our whole lives if they didn't send us back," Muhammad Rahim, a 35-year-old Afghan, told Reuters.
Like hundreds of thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan, Rahim was born in the country’s southern port city of Karachi. He married a Pakistani woman and raised his children in the port city but still has no Pakistani identity documents.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Islamabad's deadline saying it has resulted in significant threats and abuse of Afghans living in the country.
“Pakistan’s announced deadline for Afghans to return has led to detentions, beatings, and extortion, leaving thousands of Afghans in fear over their future,” said Fereshta Abbasi, HRW’s Afghanistan researcher.
“The situation in Afghanistan remains dangerous for many who fled, and deportation will expose them to significant security risks, including threats to their lives and well-being.”
Pakistan has accused the Taliban militants in power in Kabul of turning a blind eye to Pakistani insurgents who cross the border into Afghanistan to seek shelter before returning to stage attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban deny the accusations.
Meanwhile, Afghans who fled to Pakistan in hopes of forging a better and safer life, have gotten caught in the middle.
Traders, truck drivers, and political activists launched a sit-in 11 days ago in the border town of Chaman, which links the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan to the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
The group are demanding that Islamabad rescind its decision to forcefully deport Afghans and end all free travel to Afghanistan as part of its drive to enforce strict border control.
Visa-free travel is vital for cross-border trade in Chaman and other communities across the long Durand Line border between the two countries. During the past century members of some border communities were entitled to cross the border freely.
Separately, Aurat March, a Pakistani women's rights movement, staged protests on October 29 against the forced deportations in several Pakistani cities.
“If we return to Afghanistan, we will be in great danger,” said Asma Riffat, an Afghan woman living in Islamabad.
"We were threatened by the Taliban in Pakistan, and now we are facing new dangers in Afghanistan."
Since returning to power, the hard-line Islamist Taliban has banned women and teenage girls from education in Afghanistan. It has also banned them from employment in most sectors and discouraged them from leaving their homes.