Benazir Raufi is standing alone in his restaurant, fearing to travel even after the announcement by his employees and customers that it is canceling the residence permits of hundreds of Afghans.
Islamabad announced in early March that 800,000 Afghan Citizen Civil Cards (ACC) would be canceled – the second phase of a deportation program that has already forced the 800,000 unspent the Afghans across the border.
“If I have been exiled, it will destroy me. Either my heart will stop, or I will take my life,” 45 -year -old Rauf, who was 13 years old, when his family ran away from the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1990s, said, said, AFP,
“Pakistan gave us its smile and now those smiles are being taken away.”
The restaurant was raided by the police after the restaurant in Rawalpindi, in the country in which women are banned from studying, some jobs and parks from going to some public places, ten Afghan women refused to leave the ten Afghan women working for them.
Rauf said, “There is no one to return to me. Taliban will not accept us.”
The government’s deadline has been pushed back in April to leave the ACC holders voluntarily.
Born in Pakistan, married Pakistanis, or among the people living in the country for decades, their government residence permits have been canceled.
The exile comes as a campaign as the political relations between the neighboring governments have sour over Pakistan’s rapidly deteriorating security situation with the border.
Last year, Pakistan had the deadliest years in almost a decade, killing more than 1,600 people in attacks-about half of them were killed according to the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.
Pakistan accused the Taliban government that it failed to take out the terrorists who sheltered the Afghan soil, and the Taliban government refused on an charge.
The Taliban government has repeatedly called for the “dignified” return of the Afghans in its country, Prime Minister Hasan Akhund urged that countries hosting the Afghans did not force them.
‘There is no future for my daughter’
“I have freedom (in Pakistan) – I can visit the park, and my daughter can go to school,” Dua cleaning, which ran away when the Taliban government returned to power in 2021.
“There is no future in Afghanistan for me or my daughter,” said cleanliness, whose real name has changed.
Some 600,000 Afghans have crossed the border in Pakistan since taking over as the Taliban government.
Millions of Afghans have traveled to Pakistan in the last four decades, which has been running away from constant conflicts including the Soviet invasion, a civil war and a post -9/11 US -led business.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s ethnic Pashtun belt, which shares the boundaries of Afghanistan’s borders with close cultural and linguistic relations with Afghan Pashtun.
About 1.3 million Afghans are allowed to live in the country with a resident card issued by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but has been banned from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
“In the last three to four days, more than 1,000 people have been taken to the centers in custody, while thousands of people are voluntarily going to Pakistan,” Kakar said.
‘They will call me Pakistani’
Many families are afraid that if they are detained, or are misbehaved for money by the authorities when they separate from relatives.
“If I want to go, I will go into tears with a broken heart,” 43 -year -old Naimatullah, who was born in Pakistan and he has never been Afghanistan.
“They (people) will not see me as an Afghan – they will call me Pakistani. I am no one.”
After the deadline, Samiullah, who was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan and married a Pakistani woman, would be considered an illegal foreigner.
“My wife will not be able to go with me, my daughters are from here. This is a constant struggle. I cannot be caught,” said. AFP,
Thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan who are waiting to move to Western countries are also afraid of being deported.
Most are advised by Western countries to cross into Pakistan, where it takes months for their refuge claims to be processed.
One of them is a 31-year-old female rights activist and a four-year-old mother Samiya Hamza, who is currently in North-Western city of Peshawar.
“They gave us a support letter, but the Pakistani police does not recognize it,” she told AFP,
“We need to live another month in Pakistan, then we will get our visa and leave Brazil.”
