Despite crackdown, Afghan refugees remain rooted in Pakistan’s northwest

Akber Khan is seeing a brisk trade at his restaurant in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. Staff fan skewers of grilled meats and dole out rice and salad.

As an Afghan, Khan ought to be leaving as part of a nationwide crackdown on foreigners the Pakistani government says are living in the country illegally. But the only heat he feels is from the kitchen.

“I have been here for almost 50 years. I got married here, so did my children, and 10 of my family members are buried here. That’s why we have no desire to leave,” he said.

Khan is one of more than three million Afghans Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third live in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or proof of registration.

It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the country.

Afghan nationals work in an Afghan restaurant at a market in Peshawar [Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo]

The provincial government appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans. Mountainous terrain, sectarian violence and an array of armed groups have also challenged the central government’s expulsion ambitions.

“Afghans can never be completely repatriated, especially from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they return using illegal channels or exploiting loopholes in the system despite fencing at the border,” said Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Many villages along the border are divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and people in the past three or four decades were never stopped from visiting either side.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s proximity to Afghanistan, together with shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties, make it a natural destination for Afghans. The province has hosted significant numbers since the 1980s.

Many Afghans have integrated, even marrying locals. The region feels familiar and it’s easier to access through legal and illegal routes than other parts of Pakistan.

While the provincial government was cooperating with federal counterparts, policy implementation remained slow, said Abdullah Khan.

“The (local) government is sympathetic to Afghans for multiple reasons,” he said. “They share the same traditions and culture as the province, and former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his days in power consistently opposed coercive measures toward Afghan refugees.”

An Afghan cook works in an Afghan restaurant in Peshawar [Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo]

Authorities are also wary about unrest, with Afghans living in almost all of the province’s cities, towns and villages.

Although police were raiding homes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities in Punjab and Sindh province farther from the border, the “lack of aggressive enforcement” was the main reason for the slow repatriation rate, analyst Khan said.

Pressure on Pakistan to have a change of heart – from rights groups, aid agencies and Afghanistan’s Taliban government – could also be a factor.

Nearly 60,000 people have crossed back into Afghanistan since the start of April through the Torkham and Spin Boldak border points, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometres from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents.