Pakistan’s brutal deportation of Afghans widens to target registered migrants and refugees

ZARA BIBI, a 29-year-old resident of Karachi Malir, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, is deeply frightened by the possibility of their family being deported. Bibi’s family, originally from Afghanistan, hold Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), issued by the Pakistan government in 2017 during a drive to provide documentation to unregistered Afghan migrants. As such, they hoped that they would not be forced to leave Sindh when Pakistan first announced its intention to deport all “undocumented” Afghan migrants by the end of October 2023. But those hopes were short-lived, as Zara’s husband was detained by the police in Karachi despite holding an ACC. 

“My spouse was arrested unlawfully, and we had a difficult time getting him released,” Bibi recounted. While the family was eventually able to secure his release, news of a fresh wave of deportations shattered their illusions of safety. “We are so worried about what we are going to do in Afghanistan as we are born and raised here.”