“This is our home”: D-Day for Afghan who face the deportation of Pakistan Refugees

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan is the only house that Muhammad Lal Khan has known. He was born here. He got married here. His children were born here. His older brother was buried here.

But the police raid late at night in November last year broke his sense of belonging.

Khan was born in South Waziristan, a tribal area in Khyber Bakhtongua, a few years after his parents fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Since the nineties, the family has lived-including Khan’s mother, four brothers, their families and other relatives-on the outskirts of Pakistan, Islamabad, in mud homes without electricity or other basic facilities.

Now it is listed on the Pakistan deportation list.

“It seems as if the Afghans are a curse on our existence,” Khan, 36, on Al -Jazeera in the last noon in the same room that dozens of police officers stormed, and threatened to remove all the men.

“Illegally,” said Khan. Their ordeal ended after two weeks when the sponsorship court granted them.

The entire family has Afghan citizenship cards (ACC), a identification document issued by the government issued to Afghan citizens living in Pakistan. But during the past Two yearsBetween September 2023 and February 2025, a regular government campaign against Afghan citizens resulted in the expulsion of nearly 850,000 Afghans from Pakistan, including women and children.

Now, hundreds of thousands of Afghans wander From April 1.

Khan said: “We do not know anything about Afghanistan. We lived here throughout our lives, and we made friends here, and we built our work here. If the government insists on getting rid of us, we will leave, but we will return again.”

“This is our home.”

Pakistan deportation plan

Pakistan is currently hosting more than 2.5 million Afghans, according to government estimates.

Among them, about 1.3 million cards have evidence of registration (Por), which was first presented in 2006 and issued by the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, while another 800,000 carrying ACC, issued in 2017.

These documents were previously recognized as evidence of legitimate residency in Pakistan.

Not more than that.

In a two -page document issued in January, Prime Minister Shaybaz Sharif has set the “Transfer” plan from three stages.

The first stage is targeting the deportation of all Afghans now as not documented – including ACC holders. The second stage focuses on the holders of Por Cards, who have been granted relief to stay until June 2025. The final stage will address Afghan citizens who are waiting for the move to the third countries.

The Minister of State for Interior, Tal Tal Chaudhry, said that the government was firm in its position, despite the calls of the Commission and Universal Rights organizations such as Hyman Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.

“We have hosted the Afghans in the country for four decades, and we have shown our generosity and generosity, but they could not continue indefinitely. They will have to return,” he said to the island of the island.

With the beginning of this new wave of deportations scheduled for the feast – Pakistan celebrates the festive occasion otherwise on March 31 – the deadline pushed to criticize. Many believe that it is an attempt to clarify the Afghan citizens by linking them to criminal activities.

In recent years, Pakistan has suffered from a series of deadly attacks by armed groups that claim to Islam Abad, operating from Afghanistan. This also led to a rise in tensions between Taliban rulers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Pakistani officials should immediately stop the Afghans to return to their homes and give those who face the opportunity to seek protection,” Eileen Pearson, Asia’s HRW director, said in a statement on March 19.

Amnesty called the international, and called for the “non -neglected and cruel” deadline, Pakistan to reconsider its decision.

“These usual executive orders are inconsistent with government promises and repeated invitations by human rights organizations to support Afghan refugee rights and asylum seekers,” Isabelle Lassi, Deputy Regional Director of Southern Asia at Asia International, said in a statement on March 26.

But chanting Chaudhry’s feelings, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted that the government “has clarified its obligations” by hosting Afghans and was not obligated to consult with the commission.

However, Qaiser Africa, UNHCR spokesman, said they are concerned that among the ACC holders, there may be some individuals who may need international protection.

“We urge the government to see its status through a humanitarian lens. We also call for participation between Pakistan and Afghanistan so that their return can be generous and voluntary,” Aphidi said to the island of the island.

“The reintegration into Afghanistan is sustainable.”

“Why are we paid away?”

Originally from Condoz in Afghanistan, the Khan family moved to Islamabad in the early nineties and lived there since then.

The Khan room has a rough and mud walls surrounding a modest space with folded mattresses, a simple carpet, and some personal property.

Goldana Bibi, 71, was quietly sitting in the room, with a curly face, deep honey eyes, and a scarf covering her head.

“I lived in this country for four decades. My children, my grandchildren, were all born here. My husband was my last link to Afghanistan, and he died years ago. Why are we paid?” She said.

Along with his brothers, Khan was running wood closure, but twice in the past ten years – in 2015 and 2023 – they had to stop work and sell what they had in their stores because of the government’s campaign against Afghans. Khan claims to incur losses of about 1.8 million rupees ($ 6400).

“People ask why we did not do better economically. My response is, how can you uproot your life again and again, or that you are forced to pay bribes only to exist?” Khan said, sitting intertwined with his folded arms.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbors. This will never change. But they hated each other will not resolve anything, nor will people return.”

“This cafe is my life”

About 10 kilometers (6 miles), in a small café but it is light and decorated in colors, Benazir Raofi sat waiting for customers. She has lived in Pakistan for 35 years.

My father’s father was part of the Afghan government, and when the civil war broke out after the Soviet withdrawal, her family left the country. While her parents and siblings were able to leave for India, she was stopped. I was forced to stay in Afghanistan.

“I was only 12 years old. My uncle took care of me before we eventually moved to Pakistan in December 1990,” Ruyofi told the island of the island.

Ruyofi says he is the Pakistani people who give her hope. After obtaining ACC in 2017, she worked in international NGOs as well as a local travel agent.

In 2021, she won a grant for a project for her idea to create a societal space for women and children, which eventually turned into a café and a restaurant for Afghan women in the summer of that year, before Taliban Kabul took over.

The walls of the vibrant cafe are adorned, but distorted with framed certificates, small decorative things, and artificial chrome with flowers. On one of the walls, there is a large picture of Darol Aman, a three -storey historic palace in Afghanistan.

“When Afghan citizens come to visit the cafe, he reminds them of the house,” said Ruyofi with a smile. “I just wanted to provide space for families, but after the fall of Kabul, a cafe became a haven for many Afghans. I was not only allowed to win a sincere life, but also to be useful for society.”

However, she is now afraid of what the government might do for ACC holders like her.

“I am a single woman, and I am because I am because of the ordinary Pakistanis who supported me, protected them and caring for them,” she said, whom Kahva, a hot drink made of green tea, cinnamon, and cardamom leaves.

Her life, who continues to manage the cafe, despite facing health -related setbacks and even theft in her home two years ago, says her life in Pakistan was comfortable, and despite the government deportation plan, she never bother her, and she did not worry.

So this year.

“Since January, the police have come to a café twice and told me that I cannot work here, and I must leave the city. But why should I have this city my home over the past thirty years. This cafe is my life, she said.

With the deadline for deportation, Raofi admits that she does not have an emergency plan.

“I have no choice. I have escaped alone. No one wants to be a refugee, but what is the other country that I can go when Pakistan is everything I know? I will die here, but I will not leave.”