Pakistani police check people's documents during a search operation in Karachi. Photo: SHAHZAIB AKBER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
When the Pakistani police came knocking on the door of Shahid's small rented home in Islamabad. He was having lunch with his pregnant wife and three children.
Before he could get up to answer, seven police officers rushed into the room.
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Shahid knew why they had come: the wife and daughters of a 35-year-old former Afghan government official were among the 1.3 million Afghan refugees ordered to leave the country by October 31.
Only 24 hours had passed. later when his home was raided.
“I was shocked, but my children were horrified and clung to my wife. They were shaking, shaking… when I looked at my hands, they were shaking too.
“I wanted to be strong, but I couldn’t. All I could think about was what would happen to my children if we were detained,” he told The Telegraph.
Although Shahid obtained a visa to stay in Pakistan, they failed to do so and are therefore facing deportation.
In order to send the police away – for now – he agreed to pay a bribe of 10,000 Pakistani rupees (pounds sterling). 30).
Police officers are conducting an operation to search for undocumented immigrants. Photo: SHAHZAIB AKBER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Some 350,000 people have already returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, although many of that number fled persecution following the collapse of the Western-backed government in August 2021.
A flood of immigrants has swept the country. both Taliban border guards and humanitarian agencies.
About 10,000 people return every day, says Maysam Shafii, communications and advocacy adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan. There were fewer than 260 before Pakistan ordered their expulsion.
For families who choose to take the risk of staying in Pakistan, like Shahid, there are other risks. Staying out of the clutches of Pakistani authorities is an expensive proposition.
He has been detained by police twice in the past year, despite having the proper legal documents.
“Each time they kept me in custody along with 50-60 other Afghans who were detained. They took our phones and things, and we were released after we paid a bribe of 20 thousand rupees,” he said.
The deadline set by the Pakistani government for the voluntary departure of undocumented immigrants and refugees from the country expired on November 1. Photo: SHAHZAIB AKBER /EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
When Shahid fled Afghanistan, he sold his house and car. He cannot find a job because he survives as best he can on these savings.
But frequent bribes plunged him into deep debt. “But what other option do I have? If we are detained, I will be separated from my pregnant wife and children. How can I protect them if we are sent back?” he asked.
Human Rights Watch Afghanistan researcher Fereshta Abbasi says mistreatment of refugees has “increased sharply in Pakistan” since the announcement of the end of Afghans' right to remain in Pakistan.
Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have eked out a life on the margins of society, with most of them living in the cities of Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar. Their position has always been precarious: without full citizenship, children are not allowed to enter the Pakistani school system. Typically, Pakistani governments offer short-term extensions to Afghan refugees' right to remain, always keeping the threat of expulsion hanging over their heads.
This government is a temporary structure put in place ahead of postponed elections. the next year he went further and cut the umbilical cord.
It is widely believed to be a move orchestrated by Pakistan's powerful army, which dominates politics and is engaged in increasingly tense clashes with the Taliban on its border.
Afghan women and their children travel by truck to Jalalabad from a temporary camp near the Afghanistan-Pakistan Torkham border Photo: VAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images
The threat of deportation has caused panic among the Afghan community in Pakistan.“They [Taliban] threatened to kill me; they have already killed my friend. They call me a slave of foreigners,” Shahid said, sharing threats sent to him by the Islamist group.
After the Taliban seized power, he went into hiding for months, often changing places to avoid arrest. “But when general searches began in our area, we had to flee. We left the country on foot, leaving only the clothes on our backs. I will be detained as soon as I set foot in Afghanistan,” he said.
Shahid has his asylum cases pending at the US and European embassies in Pakistan, but he has been waiting for more than two years to hear from governments that were once close allies.
After a raid on his home, he was forced again hide. “We don’t leave the house at all and lock ourselves indoors.”
“There are police checkpoints everywhere, and even buying groceries is not an easy task that requires planning.”
< img src="/wp- content/uploads/2023/11/cfa60604c4afec7c167be45024047486.jpg" />A little boy stands near his family's belongings at a temporary camp in Ghazni. Photo: MOHAMMAD FAISAL NAVID/AFP via Getty Images
At just five years old, Shahid's youngest child has already seen a world of trauma. Fleeing from the Taliban, he crossed the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on foot. “It was so chaotic,” recalls Shahid: “When the gate was about to close, I asked my family to run across it… It was our only chance. And my youngest ran as fast as his legs could carry him,” he shared, holding back tears.
“He ran for his life, full of fear that if he slowed down, he would be left behind ” and caught by the Taliban. He deserves a better childhood,” Shahid said.
Concluding the interview, he asked The Telegraph to help him secure that future.
“My daughter is a very smart girl, but she will not be successful. if she is sent back to Afghanistan or Pakistan. I will go back and surrender to the Taliban and let them kill me. Just take them to a safe country,” he said.
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