Illegal migrants fear persecution under Taliban administration in their homeland, Afghanistan, after deportation
Thursday, November 09, 2023
KARACHI: After living in Pakistan for years, thousands of Afghans have gone underground to avoid government-ordered deportation for undocumented foreigners, fearing persecution under Taliban rule in their homeland, rights activists say.
"The gate is locked from the outside... we are locked inside, we can't go out, we can't turn on the lights, we can't even speak out loud," said the 23-year-old Afghan woman. , speaking online from a shelter where she said dozens more were hiding until earlier this week before moving to a new shelter.
Local supporters put a lock on the gate, so neighbors believed the house was unoccupied, other inmates said.
The woman, who is from the Afghan capital Kabul, is one of thousands who rights activists believe are hiding in Pakistan to avoid deportation as part of a government push for undocumented migrants to leave the country.
This includes more than a million Afghans, many of whom the government says have been involved in militant attacks and crimes.
Authorities began rounding up operations across the country after the Nov. 1 deadline for voluntary departures expired.
Sijal Shafiq, 30, a human rights activist based in Karachi who has helped vulnerable Afghans find refuge from Pakistan's new deportation policy, is one of several petitioners asking the Supreme Court to halt the deportation program.
"I know several women, girls, who say they would rather die than return to the Taliban," says Shafiq, adding that they all had professional dreams and ambitions that would not be possible in Afghanistan, where women are banned from most jobs and can only travel with a male escort.
A spokesman for the Taliban-run administration did not immediately comment on whether the returnees would be screened or prosecuted under their laws. Pakistan's foreign and interior ministries also did not respond to requests for comment on exempting at-risk persons from deportation.
Pakistan has so far refused calls from the United Nations, human rights groups and Western embassies to review its expulsion plan or to identify and protect Afghans who face the risk of persecution at home.
Western embassies, including the United States, have also provided Pakistani authorities with lists of Afghans being processed for possible migration abroad and asked to be exempted from deportation, but the numbers are small compared to the people at risk.
'Worse than prison'
Reuters spoke to a dozen undocumented migrants who are trying to stay under the radar of nationwide scrutiny. Because of their situation, they declined to be identified or asked that their full names not be used.
"This is worse than prison," said the 22-year-old Afghan man, who said he made sure the lights remained off at night.
Some locals who help the Afghans arrange for food and water to be secretly smuggled into the shelter under the cover of night.
Afghan singer Wafa, 28, fears her days of sanctuary in Pakistan - where she moved shortly after the Taliban seized power two years ago - are coming to an end as her visa has expired.
In an interview from a relative's home in Islamabad, she said she hopes to either get asylum in France or Canada or make Pakistan her home because her profession of singing Pashto songs — which she started 11 years ago — is no longer acceptable in Afghanistan. , where the Taliban banned public musical performances.
But she has not heard back and the visa extension application is still unavailable to her family. Meanwhile, she does not leave the house to avoid extensive speed checks by the Pakistani police.
“I am a singer… I know what will happen to me when I come back,” Wafa said.
Saleh Zada, a 32-year-old singer from Karachi, said he moved from Afghanistan a year ago.
"I used to sing in my village for friends and relatives; we had a lot of parties, singing parties," Saleh Zada said in the crowded low-income neighborhood apartment that belonged to his relatives. He showed Reuters video clips of him playing the harmonium and the rubab, a stringed instrument, some of which were on social media.
"My family advised me to leave Afghanistan, I was afraid of the Taliban," he says, adding that the fear of being picked up by Pakistani police because he did not have a valid visa kept him inside for days.
"Life is hard here (in Pakistan) but I have to save my life."
