As the federal government decides to ramp up operations against foreign nationals unlawfully residing in Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become the last destination for Afghan refugees as the KP government makes it clear it will never expel the documented Afghan nationals from the province.
On September 14, 2023, the then interim KP government, during an apex committee meeting, decided to collect data of Afghan citizens living illegally in the province. On the other hand, the federal government also gave the illegal immigrants, mostly Afghan nationals, October 31 deadline to leave Pakistan.
The repatriation of illegal Afghan nationals began on November 1, 2023 and by March 2025 almost 0.4 million Afghan nationals had left Pakistan for Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the federal government made another decision—this time asking the documented refugees—those who have been registered the government of Pakistan and carried Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC)—until March 31 to leave Pakistan.
The processes of repatriation of ACC holders began on April 1 across the country—the KP government, while giving some space to the ACC holders, said it won’t follow the federal government’s orders and extended the deadline till April 2—keeping in view the arrival of Eid-ul-Fitr.
As of May 29, some 0.54 million Afghan nationals including both—those who had been residing illegally in Pakistan and those carrying ACC, have repatriated to Afghanistan.
Official sources however said some of the Afghan nationals, who carried ACC, voluntarily left Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan, never crossed the border and settled in KP.
They said that there were some 0.9 million ACC holders living across the country but only a small number crossed the border. “This is something interesting. Official count for the registered Afghan nationals (those carrying ACC) is 0.9 million across the country but only 37000 have been deported to Afghanistan via border crossings in KP,” a senior official said.
The official questioned that if the ACC holders were transported from other parts of the province to KP and only 37000 left, where do the rest of the ACC holders live right now?
They said that soon after the March 31 deadline expired, a crackdown was launched where the law enforcement agencies would ‘pick up’ and transport the Afghan nationals all the way to the holding areas [camps] for their registration adding they would later be deported via border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Obviously, they are still in KP since the KP government has been refusing to follow the federal government’s policy regarding repatriation of the registered Afghan nationals which, officials said, is evident from a recent interaction between the provincial government’s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif and media persons.
On May 30, KP government’s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif said they shared language, culture, religion and faith with the Afghan nationals and that the provincial government disagreed with the federal government’s policy.
“The chief minister [referring to the KP CM Ali Amin Khan Gandapur] has repeatedly stated that the provincial government disagrees with the federal government’s approach,” Mr Saif said.
The provincial government’s spokesperson said Afghan citizens have been facing immense problems and are going through difficult times due to instability in their country.
He said that sending the legally residing Afghan nationals during such a situation was neither humane nor was it aligned with Pashtun traditions and at the same time called the claims, blaming Afghan citizens for the province’s problems, as unfair.
“We have a clear policy on registered Afghan nationals. We have no restrictions on them,” Mr Saif said adding ‘but, for those illegally residing here, we follow the federal government’s policy.’
Although, the deadline for repatriation of Afghan nationals residing illegally in Pakistan expired on October 31, 2023, voluntary repatriation of Afghan immigrants started before the deadline when some 104,443 Afghan nationals including 56432 children had left for Afghanistan before October 31, 2023.
The government had developed a policy in which the illegal immigrants, residing in Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad, were to be transported to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and later deported via Pak-Afghan border crossings in Khyber, North Waziristan and Kurram districts—majority however, were deported through Khyber’s Torkham border crossing.
