Afghas hidden in Pakistan live in fear of forced deportation

“I am scared,” Soloza Nabila.

The life of the 10 -year -old is limited to her house in a room in Islamabad and the dirt road outside her. Since December he has not been in his local school, when he decided that he would no longer accept Afghans without a valid Pakistani birth certificate. But even if I could go to classes, Nabila says he wouldn’t.

“I was sick one day and I heard that the police came to look for Afghan children,” he cries, while telling us that her friend’s family was sent back to Afghanistan.

Nabila is not his real name: all the names of the Afghan cited in this article have changed for their safety.

The capital of Pakistan and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi are witnessing an increase in deportations, arrests and arrests of Afghans, says the UN. He estimates that more than half of the three million Afghan in the country are undocumented.

Afghas describe a life of constant fear and the raids of the almost daily police in their homes.

Some told the BBC that they were afraid to be killed if they returned to Afghanistan. These include families in a US resettlement program, which has been suspended by the Trump administration.

Pakistan is frustrated for how long the relocation programs have been, says Philippa Candler, representative of the UN refugee agency in Islamabad. The UN (IIM) International Migration Organization says that 930 people were sent back to Afghanistan in the first half of February, twice the figure two weeks before. At least 20% of those deported from Islamabad and Rawalpindi had documentation from the refugee UN agency, which means they were recognized as people who needed international protection.

But Pakistan is not part of the refugee convention and has previously said that he does not recognize the Afghans who live in the country as refugees. The Government has said that its policies are aimed at all illegal foreigners and that a deadline is coming for them to leave. That date has fluctuated, but is now established on March 31 for those without valid visas, and on June 30 for those with resettlement letters.

Many Afghan are terrified in the midst of confusion. They also say that the visa process can be difficult to navigate. Nabila’s family believes they only have one option: hide. His father Hamid served in the Afghan army, before the acquisition of the Taliban in 2021. He broke into the tears described by their insomnia nights.

“I have served my country and now I am useless. That work has condemned me,” he said.

His family has no visas, and is not on a resettlement list. They tell us that their telephone calls to the UN refugee agency have no answer.

The BBC has communicated with the agency to comment.

The Taliban government previously told the BBC that all Afghans should return because they could “live in the country without any fear.” He states that these refugees are “economic migrants.”

But a UN report in 2023 They take doubts about the guarantees of the Taliban government. He found that hundreds of former government officials and members of the armed forces were allegedly killed despite a general amnesty.

The guarantees of the Taliban government are of little peace of mind for Nabila’s family, so they choose to run when the authorities are close. The neighbors offer refuge, since everyone tries to avoid retaining Afghanistan.

The UN told 1,245 Afghans arrested or detained in January in Pakistan, more than double the same period last year.

Nabila says that Afghan should not be forced. “Do not throw the Afghan of their homes, we are not here by choice, we are forced to be here.”

There is a feeling of sadness and loneliness in your home. “He had a friend who was here and then was deported to Afghanistan,” says Nabila Maryam’s mother.

“It was like a sister, a mother. The day we separated was a difficult day.”

I ask Nabila what he wants to do when he is older. “Modeling,” she says, taking a serious look. Everyone in the room smiles. The tension is missed.

His mother whispers, there are many other things that could be, an engineer or a lawyer. Nabila’s dream of Modelar is one that could never pursue under the Taliban government. With their restrictions on the education of girls, their mother’s suggestions would also be impossible.

Pakistan has a long history of collecting Afghan refugees. But cross -border attacks have increased and fueled tension between the two neighbors. Pakistan blames the militants based in Afghanistan, that the Taliban government denies. Since September 2023, the year in which Pakistan launched its “illegal foreigner repatriation plan”, 836,238 individuals have been returned to Afghanistan.

In the midst of this current phase of deportations, some Afghan are arrested at the Haji camp in Islamabad. Ahmad was in the final stages of the United States resettlement program. He tells us that when President Donald Trump suspended him for review, he extinguished Ahmad’s “last hope”. The BBC has seen what its employment letter seems to be for a non -profit Christian group in Afghanistan.

A few weeks ago, when I was shopping, he received a call. His three -year -old daughter was at stake. “My baby called, Come Baba, the police are here, the police come to our door,” he says. His wife’s visa extension was still pending, and was occupied by pleading with the police.

Ahmad ran home. “I couldn’t leave them behind.” He says he sat in a truck and waited hours while the police continued his raids. The wives and children of their neighbors continued to enter the vehicle. Ahmad began receiving calls from his husbands, begging him to take care of them. They had already escaped to the forest.

His family was retained for three days in “unimaginable conditions,” says Ahmad, who states that they were only given a blanket per family, and a piece of bread per day, and that their phones were confiscated. The Pakistani government says that “no one is mistreated or harassed during the repatriation process.”

We try to visit the Haji camp to verify the Ahmad account, but the authorities denote us the entrance. The BBC approached the Pakistani government and the police for an interview or declaration, but no one was available.

Scared to be arrested or deported, some families have chosen to leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Others tell us that they simply cannot afford.

A woman states that she was in the final stages of the United States resettlement scheme and decided to move with her two daughters to Atock, 80 km (50 miles) west of Islamabad. “I can barely pay the bread,” she says.

The BBC has seen a document confirming that it had an interview with the IOM in early January. She affirms that her family is still witnessing almost daily raids in her neighborhood.

A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Islamabad has said that he is in “nearby communication” with the Pakistan government “about the state of Afghan citizens on the resettlement of the United States.”

Outside the doors of the Haji camp, a woman is waiting. She tells us that she has a valid visa, but her sister’s has expired. His sister is now stopped inside the camp, along with her children. The officers did not let her visit her family, and is terrified that they are deported. She starts crying: “If my country was sure, why would it come here to Pakistan? And even here we cannot live peacefully.”

She points to her own daughter who is sitting in her car. She was a singer in Afghanistan, where a law states that women cannot be heard talking outside her home, much less singing. I go to his daughter and ask him if he still sings. She looks. “No.”