ISLAMABAD: More than 20,000 Afghan nationals left Pakistan for Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing between April 1 and 7, following the expiry of the March 31 deadline for holders of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) to leave the country, officials said on Thursday.
According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs Department, a total of 20,073 Afghans returned to their home country in the first week of April alone.
Of these, 12,982 departed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5,435 from Punjab, 1,573 from Islamabad, 44 from Sindh, 38 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and one from Gilgit Baltistan.
The figure forms part of a broader nationwide repatriation drive, during which over 485,000 Afghan nationals have returned to Afghanistan since September 2023.
Most of them carried Afghan Citizen Cards issued by Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) after verification from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), police, and other security institutions.
The ongoing repatriation is being carried out under the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Programme (IFRP), launched on 1 November 2023.
Initially aimed at deporting undocumented foreign nationals, the programme has now entered a second phase. In March this year, Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior directed all ACC holders to leave the country by 31 March 2025.
Pakistan has hosted more than 2.8 million Afghan nationals for decades, according to United Nations data.
Of these, around 1.3 million are registered refugees holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, while another estimated 800,000 hold ACCs.
Islamabad initiated the crackdown on foreign nationals, particularly Afghans, in response to a spate of deadly terrorist attacks across the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistani authorities claim many of these attacks were carried out by terrorists operating from Afghan soil, and have accused the Taliban-led government in Kabul of harbouring terrorists of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Speaking earlier this week, Pakistan’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq, warned that continued inaction by the Taliban on terrorism concerns could jeopardise all bilateral agreements.
“TTP is a big challenge for us. It cannot be tolerated because our young children and boys are being killed every day. Martyrdom has become so common in certain areas—it would be criminal to ignore that,” the envoy said.
“Afghanistan will have to work with us on this. If they are not working with us, then all deals are off. There would be no further progress on anything,” he warned.
