KHYBER: Saturday witnessed the largest deportation of Afghans via the Torkham border crossing here since April 1, with over 750 refugees, including men, women and children, being sent to their country after arrests in Islamabad and Punjab.

Officials at the transit centre in Landi Kotal told Dawn that 777 Afghan nationals were handed over to the Khyber police at the Karkhano Market checkpost.

They added that the refugees were first taken to the transit centre for registration at the Nadra desk and then shifted to the Torkham border for completion of deportation process.

The sources insisted that the registration of arrested Afghan nationals was just a formality and took little time to complete.

Over 750 refugees sent back following arrest in Islamabad, Punjab

Official data revealed that the Afghans deported on Saturday were rounded up in Islamabad Capital Territory and Punjab’s Faisalabad, Rahimyar Khan, Hafizabad, Narowal, Sargodha, Multan, Sheikhupura and Bahawalpur areas.

Sargodha, Faisalabad and Islamabad top the list with 150, 143 and 129 detainees, respectively.

Police in Landi Kotal said all arrested refugees, including women and children, were escorted to the checkpost at Peshawar’s Karkhano Market by Punjab police before being in their custody.

They said that 85 per cent of Afghans were arrested in Punjab, while the rest opted for voluntary return.

Gul Agha, an Afghan family’s head, told reporters at Torkham that border authorities didn’t allow vehicles without temporary admission document (TAD) to cross the border and refugees were asked to either rent another vehicle with TAD for proceeding to Afghanistan or carry their goods to the border in handcarts.

He said that the restriction on non-TAD vehicles was not only a financial burden on most returning families but it had also multiplied their misery as they had to offload all their belongings from such vehicles before reloading them onto TAD vehicles or renting hand carts for transportation up to the border.

Sherin Jan, another returning Afghan refugee, said that he had paid Rs140,000 for a non-TAD vehicle in Punjab to take his goods to the Torkham border but had to pay additional Rs160,000 to another vehicle with valid documents for onward journey.

He said that the electronic scanning of his belongings and their checking by customs officials had added to his problems, as his family members had to wait for long hours to see “all those unnecessary formalities” completed.

The returning refugees requested Pakistani authorities to give a one-time waiver to non-TAD vehicles to facilitate their speedy return to Afghanistan, along with exemption from customs clearance and electronic scanning.

However, officials at the transit centre insisted that the number of returning Afghans had been increasing since their voluntary repatriation deadline expired on March 31, with the Punjab police intensifying their crackdown on illegal Afghan nationals in the province.

Also in the day, assistant commissioner of Landi Kotal ordered all Afghans, living in the tehsil, to vacate their houses and return to their country in line with the federal government’s announcement regarding expulsion of all illegal foreigners.

Meanwhile, customs authorities on Saturday said that 519 vehicles carried export items to Afghanistan in the last three days, while another 85 vehicles with Afghan Transit Trade goods were also dispatched.

However, local sources said that the last three days saw a marked decline in import of coal and soapstone from Afghanistan due to a technical fault in the scanning machine at the customs terminal.

They said that while Pakistani authorities had so far allowed 526 stranded empty vehicles to enter Pakistan in the last three days, only 300 vehicles, loaded mostly with pomegranate and raw cotton, were granted import permission.

The sources said that officials at the customs terminal argued that they couldn’t allow coal and soapstone vehicles to undergo electronic scanning as the scanner was being tested for proper functioning after it developed technical fault twice in the last three weeks, hampering imports from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Kohat administration has asked 100,000 Afghan nationals, including illegal refugees and Afghan Citizen Card holders, to return to their country voluntarily.

Additional deputy commissioner (G) Hamid Iqbal, SP (City) Farooq Zaman and other officials met with Afghan elders from three Ghamkol Sharif refugee camps here on Saturday and said Pakistan had hosted refugees for 40 years but it was time for them to return on their own in line with a government decision.

According to official data, 100,000 Afghan refugees live in Kohat’s eight camps. Out of them, 16,000 got Afghan Citizen Cards from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2017.

The Ublan Camp is the largest camp, followed by three in Ghamkol and one each in Shindhand, Ghulam Banda, Cheechanna and Jarma Bridge, with their inhabitants doing business in both urban and rural areas.

Now, they all, totaling 100,000, will have to leave the country in line with the Pakistani government’s policy, according to officials.

The ADC said the government wanted refugees to go home respectfully and peacefully to start a new phase of their lives.

He said refugees should prepare themselves for voluntary repatriation to prevent any police action.

The ADC said authorities won’t use force to send refugees to Afghanistan and would facilitate their return.

“Afghan refugees should understand Pakistan’s economic and security compulsions under which they can’t be hosted any further, so they should opt for voluntary repatriation,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025