By Saima Soltani
Although Pakistan began its policy of expelling Afghan refugees in 2023, the process intensified after Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, which was followed by cuts to U.S. humanitarian funding for the United Nations. As a result, funding for hosting Afghan refugees in Pakistan was halted. In recent weeks, the expulsions have taken on a broader and more serious scale.
In this context, I spoke with a woman who had lived in Pakistan for more than four years and was recently deported to Afghanistan. Sohaila, a mother of two, was deported just 20 days ago. She left Afghanistan in December 2021—about 50 days after the Taliban takeover—together with her two young children and her maternal family. She spent four and a half years in Pakistan and had hoped to remain there. But in a second raid on her home, a counterterrorism police unit detained her and transferred her, along with her husband and two young daughters, to Haji Camp in Islamabad.
She said:« The first time they came to our house, we were panicked. A female officer stood alongside the male police and told us to gather our belongings—they were taking us away. We packed our things. As I was going downstairs, my mother hugged me and cried as if they were taking me to be killed.
That same day, my younger sister managed, with great difficulty, to get into the camp to bring food and some snacks for my two daughters. She had also brought a SIM card, but it was useless because our phones had been taken from us inside the camp. She told me not to worry, that I would be released safely. I didn’t believe it, but after three days, we were finally released after being issued exit permits.
For three months, I kept urging my mother’s family to leave that house and move somewhere else so the police wouldn’t come again, but those discussions went nowhere. Finally, on the morning of March 28, as I was preparing breakfast, a female officer came to our home and asked to see our passports and visas. My blood ran cold—I knew this time I wouldn’t get away.
We gathered our essentials, and as I went downstairs, I saw my mother in the same state again—thrashing and wailing like a fish out of water. My sister told me, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you out again.
This time things were different. After three days, we were deported. From one of the women who had hidden her phone, I called my sister and told her they were taking us toward Torkham. She said, ‘Don’t worry, Asad has said he will turn you back from the Torkham border.’ Asad is an officer in Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior. According to discussions between the Pakistani government and some officials of the former Afghan government, there had been promises to protect military personnel and others at risk from deportation and to extend their visas.
My father had also been in the military, and our name was on the list of military families. But since we had not applied for visas, we didn’t have any. Still, we believed Asad would help, because he had previously turned back a military family twice from the Torkham border.
We reached the border. Every moment I thought they would call our names and send us back, but suddenly we were handed over to the Taliban. Even then, I couldn’t believe we had been deported. I called my sister and told her, ‘They’ve handed us over to the Taliban. Do you know what happened to Asad?’ My sister was stunned. She said, ‘Wait, I’ll call him,’ but it was already too late—we had truly been deported.»
She goes on to describe the harsh living conditions in the camp:« Before the day we were due to be transferred to the camp, we had made bolani. Because I had previous experience of staying there, I knew to take them with me so we would at least have something clean and proper to eat for one meal. The food in the camp is not fit for consumption; they serve unhealthy lentils in disposable containers and distribute them. We avoided drinking water until we were extremely thirsty, so we wouldn’t have to use the toilets, because the sanitary conditions were so bad that some refugees had urinated in the kitchen. The toilets were blocked and covered in filth. There was no soap or handwash available for cleaning.
We spent three days there hungry and thirsty. The staff behaved very harshly; one of the women was beaten for making noise. Guards would occasionally enter the room to count us and make sure no one had escaped. The sanitary conditions and treatment of refugees in the camp were so poor that everyone was hoping to be deported as soon as possible and escape from there.»
Having spent several days and nights in Haji Camp, Sohaila has many firsthand accounts to share. She continues:« I witnessed terrible scenes. There was a woman who, along with her sister, had married Pakistani men. She had separated from her husband and had a breastfeeding infant. She said she was speaking Persian in a taxi when the driver reported her to the police as an Afghan woman. As soon as she got out of the taxi, police appeared in front of her within moments and arrested her. Her baby had been left at home with her sister, and she felt relieved that the child was not in the camp, given how bad the situation was. Later, during deportation, her child was brought to her, and only then did a smile return to her face.
Her sister’s husband reportedly offered a bribe of 500,000 Pakistani rupees—about two thousand US dollars—for her release, but the camp police refused. This time, the deportation decision was truly final.
In another case, I saw a family in a room who had already obtained UK visas and were due to fly out, yet they were still brought to the camp. The camp police, not believing that they actually had a flight, transported them in a camp security vehicle all the way to the airport.
There were also several Pakistani families who had not been issued identity cards and were brought to the camp as Afghan migrants, where they spent nearly a month in limbo.
Among all these cases, the story of one woman and her son was particularly heartbreaking. She said her husband had just been brought home after surgery and was unable to stand or walk. When the police arrived, they left him there and took her and her son to the camp.
Another woman said she had left her gold and 6,000 US dollars in cash at home, and that she was taken to the camp midway.
On the bus, as we were being taken from Haji Camp toward Torkham, I met the daughters of a man who had been in the military. Their visas still had about three months left, yet they were still deported. Their father was extremely frightened.»
Photo credited: Internet
