Pakistan has in recent days witnessed hundreds of Afghansdragging their belongings across the Torkham and Chaman borders as the govt began its second drive of deportations on March 31.
Under an unforgiving Karachi sun, Qari Zaeenuddin and his daughter patiently stand outside Ameen House — a hostel turned detention centre — in the Sultanabad locality. The duo is surrounded by nearly a dozen policemen and their vans guarding the building, where hundreds of Afghans from across the city have been brought of late.
The father, a petite man dressed in a shalwar kameez and white topi, clutches a file close to himself. The girl, whose face is hidden under a naqab, carries a bloated backpack, the weight of which bends her 18-year-old timid back. Both are sweating profusely, but wait silently for their turn. When the station house officer of the area makes an appearance, they rush to him. There is more waiting to do, they are told.
Zaeenuddin, an Afghan refugee, migrated to Pakistan in 1996 when he was just a boy. Initially based in the Hazara division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he later moved to Karachi, where he got married. Bibi Razia, who is accompanying him, too, was born and recently married in the port city. On the third day of Eid, however, her husband was arrested from a naan shop in Banaras, Orangi Town.
“He lost his POR (proof of residency) card, and so they took him,” he says. That day, Zaeenuddin made multiple visits to the area police station before he was told that Kamaluddin had been sent to Ameen House. “I have come here with all the documents,” he points to the file. Inside is Razia Bibi’s neatly stapled POR card, marriage certificate, birth certificate and vaccination cards.
“I have one request: either let him out or take my daughter in too so that they can both go to Afghanistan together … what will she do here alone?” the father cries. “I will wait all day if need be, but I won’t leave until I’m given a definitive answer.” And so Zaeenuddin continues to stand outside the hostel until one of the policemen gives him a seat.
Qari Zaeenuddin and his daughter wait outside Ameen House.
Pakistan has in recent days witnessed hundreds of Afghans dragging their belongings across the Torkham and Chaman borders as the government began its second drive of deportations on March 31, which targeted those holding Afghan Citizen Cards — an identity document jointly issued by the Pakistani and Afghan government in 2017.
The drive is part of a larger campaign that the government began in 2023 to repatriate all illegal foreigners. Under the first phase, all undocumented Afghans were deported, those who didn’t have identity proof.
In Karachi, over the last five days, at least 307 Afghan refugees, particularly those holding an Afghan Citizen Card or ACC, have been sent back to the country their families fled from years ago, according to a provisional police statement available with Dawn.com. Separately, 11,272 Afghans have been repatriated through the Torkham border crossing since April 1.
In 2017, Pakistan, in collaboration with the Afghan government, introduced the ACCs, which were to be issued to those who could not obtain the PoR cards for some reason. The estimated number of ACC holders is around 840,000.
Many of those who crossed the border left behind not only the property, homes and lives they built over the years, but also family members. On the other hand, the ones on this side of the border have found themselves in a constant state of panic and distress.
