Every night in Karachi, a bustling port city in Pakistan, Fatima Bibi goes to bed in fear. The sound of police sirens from the streets outside makes her anxious. She wonders whether a knock at the door might tear her family apart.
Her husband, Sher Zada, is an Afghan refugee. His family fled conflict in Afghanistan when he was just a boy, in 1992, and Pakistan is the only home he knows. Ms. Bibi’s family long hoped that despite Mr. Zada’s undocumented status, his close ties to the country and marriage to a Pakistani national would eventually help him secure permanent residency, if not citizenship.
But to the Pakistani government, it is officially past time for Mr. Zada to leave.
On March 31, a government-imposed deadline expired for many Afghans in Pakistan to find another country of refuge. Those without legal status who remain in Pakistan, like Mr. Zada, now face repatriation. Less than three weeks after the deadline’s expiration, the Pakistani minister of state for interior, Talal Chaudhry, announced at a news conference that more than 80,000 Afghans had already been expelled.
The deportations could subject the refugees to perilous conditions under the heavy hand of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. And, if they are married to Pakistanis, it could mean leaving their families behind.
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“What will happen to my children and me if Zada is taken away?” Ms. Bibi said.
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Afghan men embraced in Karachi, Pakistan, before boarding a bus for Afghanistan. A Pakistani official said more than 80,000 Afghans had been deported in recent weeks.Credit...Asif Hassan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The campaign to deport Afghans coincides with a resurgent conflict with India, Pakistan’s eastern neighbor and archrival. India has ordered almost all Pakistani citizens to leave the country, part of its response to a terrorist attack in Kashmir that it has linked to Pakistan. The Pakistani government, which denies any involvement in the attack and has asked for an international investigation into it, responded by canceling most Indian citizens’ visas.
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