Afghans return homecountry amid uncertainty
\nAshrafuddin Pirzada
\nLANDIKOTAL
\nAs Afghan nationals return to Afghanistan under Pakistan\u2019s repatriation drive, Pakistani women like Sadia Bibi, married to Afghan citizens, fear their families would be compelled apart after their Afghan husbands received notices to leave the country.
\nFor a 32-year-old Pakistani national Sadia Bibi, the government\u2019s ongoing repatriation drive has turned family life into an heartbreaking dilemma fir all men and women married to Afghan nationals.
\nMarried to an Afghan national for the past 10 years, Sadia is the mother of three children who born in a Pakistani family and have legal Pakistani documents. Her Afghan husband, however, has received a notice ordering him to leave the country.
\n\u201cIf my husband is forced to leave Pakistan, I couldn\u2019t go with him because i have no Afghan legal citizenship documents to live there, as Afghanistan is no longer home for me and my children. I am afraid of starting life there.\u201dSadi Bibi with tears in her eyes said.
\nSadia\u2019s story reflects the growing uncertainty facing hundreds of Pakistani women married to Afghan nationals and a large number of Afghan girls married with Pakistani men, many of whom now fear family separation or relocation to a country they barely know.
\nAccording to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), around 150,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan in the past few weeks, while nearly 2.5 million have left Pakistan since the government launched its repatriation drive in late 2023.
\nAmong those waiting at transit camp to leave for Afghanistan was Haji Nasir,62, a cosmetics shopkeeper in Board Bazaar Peshawar, originally from Afghanistan\u2019s Nangarhar province. He said his family has lived in Pakistan for four decades.
\n\u201cOur third generation was born in Pakistan and my children do not even know where our ancestral village is in Afghanistan or who their relatives are. Pakistan is the only home they have ever known.\u201dNasir said.He said situation in Afghanistan was not stable both economically and socially. He said peace was also at stake for them in Afghanistan but due to tense situation between the two Muslim neighbouring countries they had to leave Pakistan.
\nFor many young Afghans girls and boys, deportation has also disrupted education and future aspirations.
\nWaheed Agha 22, a political science student at the University said he was detained by police while visiting a market in Peshawar and transferred to the Landikotal transit camp for deportation.
\n\u201cI wanted to complete my education in Pakistan and then serve my country, Afghanistan,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, I am being sent back with nothing.\u201d His companion, Sultan Safi,20, said his family only learned of his arrest two days later.
\n\u201cMy parents, siblings and other relatives are still in Pakistan, while I am being deported alone,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I reach Afghanistan, I will have no home, no close family and nowhere to live except perhaps a refugee camp.\u201d
\nDespite the uncertainty, both young men said they hoped to obtain visas one day and return legally to Pakistan to continue their studies and rebuild their lives.
\nSaifur rehman Mohmand,40, a businessman, said police detained him in Nowshera city and his two sons days before.He said they were not given time to wind up their clothing business.
\n\u201cOur shop and merchandise worth millions of rupees are still there, If we had been given a few more days, we could have sold everything and left with dignity.\u201dMohmand said.
\nInstead, he now faces an uncertain future in Afghanistan,he said.
\n\u201cI have no business, no house and no source of income there. I will try every legal way possible to return to Pakistan because my children\u2019s education and our livelihood depend on it,\u201d he said.
\nMoinullah,30, originally from Bati Kot district in Nangarhar, said he had decided to return voluntarily after concluding that Afghans would no longer be allowed to remain in Pakistan.
\n\u201cI was born in Pakistan and studied in Peshawar, i don\u2019t know what work I will do in Afghanistan because I have neither a house nor close relatives there.\u201dMoun remarked.
\nFor now, he said, his wife and two children would live in a tent settlement un Afghanistan until they could determine whether any ancestral land remained in their village.\u201dIf we can reclaim our family land, we will slowly build a small house,\u201d he said quietly.
\nThe humanitarian challenges awaiting were significant for returnees having no enough money in hands and no other life facilities at home country. Many families said they returning without homes, jobs or savings in Afghanstan. Those who left Afghanistan decades ago often have no surviving relatives, making reintegration difficult.
\nReturnees also face limited employment opportunities, pressure on health and education services, housing shortages and the challenge of rebuilding lives in a country still struggling with widespread poverty,uncertainty and humanitarian needs.
\nAt the overcrowded Landikotal transit camp, assistant commissioner Inamullah Khan Wazir said authorities were struggling to cope with the influx.
\n\u201cNearly 5,000 Afghan nationals arrive at the camp daily, while the facility has the capacity to accommodate only about 2,500 people,\u201d he said.
\nThe official said the administration, in coordination with other government departments, had established a monitoring mechanism to provide clean drinking water, food, medicines,shelter, transportation to Torkham and other essential services.
\n\u201cThe pressure on the camp continues because Afghan nationals were arriving from different districts and provinces across Pakistan,\u201d he added.
\nFifty-year-old Shukrullah Khadim, who arrived from Charsadda with his family, waited for hours under the scorching sun.
\n\u201cMy children are exhausted from the heat, the large number of returnees has slowed the repatriation process\u201d, he said. He said they were leaving Pakistan with sweet memories of being respected and helped by Pakistani citizens for fourty years. He added that they would keep Pakistan and its citizens in their prayers.
\nThousands of Afghan nationals, many of them women and children, continue to pass through the Landikotal transit camp every day. Several families have already been split, with some members remaining in Pakistan while others were deported.
\nPakistani officials maintain that the repatriation campaign is being implemented in accordance with the government\u2019s policy to return undocumented foreigners to their home country. The federal government said the process was aimed at enforcing immigration laws, strengthening national security and ensuring that only individuals possessing valid visas or legal residence documents remain in Pakistan. Officials have repeatedly stated that documented refugees registered with the relevant authorities continue to be treated in accordance with Pakistan\u2019s commitments and applicable legal frameworks.
\nFor many families boarding towards Torkham, however, the journey was not simply a return home. It was the beginning of an uncertain future in a country many have never truly known.
\nDriver of a truck, Ahmad Shinwari, said that they were happy with the Afghan returnees and have had no issue with them. He said they transport Afghan citizens to their destinations in Afghanistan but on the the way back to Pakistan they wait for days and weeks to enter Pakistan. He said truck drivers and their helpers have proper documents but due to restrictions on the border they had to wait at Torkham border for long days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Afghans return homecountry amid uncertainty Ashrafuddin Pirzada LANDIKOTAL As Afghan nationals return to Afghanistan under Pakistan\u2019s repatriation drive, Pakistani women like Sadia Bibi, married to Afghan citizens, fear their families would be compelled apart after their Afghan husbands received notices to leave the country. For a 32-year-old Pakistani national Sadia Bibi, the government\u2019s ongoing repatriation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-peshawar"],"yoast_head":"\n