Afghans in Pakistan facing deportation and uncertainty

They fled Afghanistan seeking refuge from the Taliban in Pakistan. Now faced with forced deportation, more than 200,000 Afghans have left the South Asian country, going back into the unknown

  • An Afghan refugee girl collects rubbish in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham
    An Afghan refugee girl collects rubbish in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • Afghan refugees sit on a mat on the ground. In the background are several trucks packed with the refugees' personal belongings
    Thousands of people arrived at the Torkham border crossing in north-western Pakistan after Pakistan announced that it had begun taking undocumented Afghans to camps for deportation. With around 4 million Afghans, Pakistan is home to the majority of the Afghan diaspora. According to government figures, 1.7 million of them are in the country illegally (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • Afghan refugees gather at the border crossing in Torkham. Tents and trucks and mountains can be seen in the background
    After the Taliban came to power again in 2021, around 600,000 Afghans fled to neighbouring Pakistan. But even before that, many Afghans had already moved there due to conflicts at home in the 1970s and 1980s. Many second- or third-generation Afghans have never even visited Afghanistan (image: Esmatullah Habibian/Middle East Images/abaca/picture-alliance)
  • Fully packed trucks gathered at the Afghan border. People stand and sit on top of the cargo on the trucks
    In the Afghan province of Nangarhar, just over the border from Pakistan, fully loaded trucks take Afghan families across the border (image: Muhammad Sajjad/AP/dpa/picture-alliance)
  • An Afghan boy climbs up a hill. In the background are rows of tent camps and fully packed, parked trucks in the valley below
    The Taliban government set up two tent camps near Torkham on the Afghan side of the border to accommodate the masses of people arriving. Pakistan's government had set a deadline: illegal immigrants had to leave the country by 1 November. However, many Afghans are afraid to return to the country from which they fled (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • Two armed Taliban fighters guard a registration centre for new arrivals from Pakistan. Behind them are rows of veiled women and men
    Taliban fighters guard a registration point for the new arrivals from Pakistan. The organisation Reporters Without Borders has warned that around 200 Afghan media professionals are also at risk of deportation from Pakistan. After the Taliban took power, many Afghan reporters fled abroad, including to Pakistan, for fear of repression (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • An elderly Afghan man receives medical care. He is leans back on a chair covered in blankets. In the background are trucks and people sitting on mats on the ground.
    Several international aid organisations have expressed concern about the precarious situation in which many deported Afghans now find themselves. There is a lack of accommodation, food, drinking water, heating and hygiene facilities on the Afghan side of the border. Many people are sleeping in the open (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • A group of five Afghan refugee children warm their hands at a fire
    At night temperatures here drop to below 10 degrees Celsius. Pakistan's decision to summarily deport Afghans has been met with fierce criticism. The UN's Refugee Agency warns of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as winter approaches. Many families have nowhere to return to in Afghanistan and will be homeless (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)
  • A group of women in burqas with children sit on the ground near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Torkham
    The refugee protection organisation Pro Asyl has called on the German government to quickly take in Afghans who are particularly at risk. 'Many people had to go to Pakistan to complete migration procedures for Germany or other countries,' Alema Alema, ProAsyl's spokesperson for Afghanistan, said. 'The Federal Foreign Office must take steps to get them out fast now.' (image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture-alliance)