200,000 Afghans have been deported from Pakistan to their home country since the beginning of November. There they wait in tents – without heating, without blankets and in great fear of the Taliban, from whom they once fled.
Shortly behind the border with Pakistan, in the Afghan province of Nangarhar: Thousands of fully loaded trucks have driven Afghan families across the border. Here they are accommodated in an emergency relief camp set up by the Taliban.
Video footage shows, among other things, tents belonging to a Chinese development aid organization. Khayal Mohammad sits in front of a tent with his wife and children. He pours tea from a thermos flask into cut-off bottoms of plastic bottles. They serve as cups. “We are asking the international community to help us with a house and accommodation,” he says. “There are families who have nothing here, no land, no house. They just live in the open air, no one helps them. We need help.”
Everything back to zero
Khayal Mohammad lived in Peshawar, Pakistan, for 17 years, built a life for himself – and now everything goes back to square one. A week ago, the authorities took him to the border with his wife and five children and deported him. He tells the AP news agency that he was not allowed to take any personal belongings with him. Aid organizations also confirm this. Accordingly, the Pakistani authorities confiscated jewelry and cash from many Afghan refugees at the border.
At night the temperatures drop to below ten degrees Celsius. It will soon be winter. The refugees can only keep themselves warm by an open fire. Khayal Mohammad’s seven-year-old daughter Hawa sits next to him. She wipes away her tears with her headscarf. Her father tries to calm her down. “I’m crying because I’m cold. Last night it was very cold and we had nothing to sleep on – no mattress, no blanket, nothing, no pillows, we have nothing,” says Hawa. “That’s what I drank for breakfast and that’s all we live with now.”
“…and no one can help us”
The situation is also unbearable for her mother Wahida. “We’ve been here for five nights now and no one can help us. We’ve already spent what little we had, my children are sick from the cold, we don’t know what to do.”
Elsewhere in the camp, people line up at a tank for water. According to aid organizations, there is only limited access to drinking water for the Afghan refugees in the emergency relief camp. There are no lights and no toilets. The United Nations and other organizations are now trying to achieve at least some infrastructure.
1.7 million Afghans are expected to leave Pakistan
At the beginning of October, the Pakistani interim government announced that all refugees without valid residence status must have left the country by the end of October. This mainly affected around 1.7 million Afghans. But many are afraid to return to the country from which they fled.
Like Asadullah’s family. They have been in hiding since the Pakistani police began deporting Afghans at the beginning of November. The family is sure that the Taliban will kill them if they return. The memories are still too strong, Asadullah tells the AP. “They held a Kalashnikov to my brother’s head. We thought they were going to kill us, and they told my father and mother that they were going to kill them. They treated us like criminals.”
Asadullah’s wife is also afraid: “We can’t leave the house anymore, not even our children. We’ve heard that the police are searching people and throwing them out, regardless of documents or anything else. One of my sons is in a psychiatric clinic. The UN refugee agency was looking for us, but when we call them, no one answers.”
Artist in mortal danger
In Peshawar, a group of Afghan musicians and artists have now lodged an objection with the court. They are protesting against the threat of deportation. After the Taliban came to power, many musicians fled to Pakistan. Music is largely forbidden under the Taliban. One of the musicians tells a Pakistani news site that he fled Afghanistan two years ago: “My talent, my music is banned, I can’t perform and work there.”
Other Afghan musicians fear for their lives if they return to Taliban territory. Around 300 families are affected, reports another. Because of this order, the artists have to leave Pakistan. They came to the country precisely to seek protection because their work was banned in Afghanistan. Your life is in danger.