Islamabad, Pakistan – When Salima Ahmad* noticed a three -day gap between her family visas and history in a document proving that she applied for renovations, her heart is full of awe. Ahmed, a Afghan citizen, has been living in Pakistan since 2022, that the authorities would arrest their family for illegal residence in the country.

On February 7, just two days after her visas ended, her fears became a reality.

A group of police officials, including the officers, raided her rented home, and identified her family as unconventional residents. Despite her appeals and attempts to show that their passports were sent to renew the visa, the police took her husband away.

“I kept clear, and I begged to release him. I tried to show them documents and evidence that we had applied to renew the visa, but they did not listen.”

Then Policewomen asked Ahmed to pack the property of her children, and warned that she would also be taken to a refugee camp and the departments who set up the outskirts of Islamabad.

“I begged them not to do this. My children will be a shock. But they eventually put us in a car and took us away.”

After spending two days in a tent in the camp in the outskirts of Islamabad, Ahmed only managed to return to their homes after two days by arranging a bribe of 60,000 rupees ($ 216).

“I had to ask my relatives, who came to verify us, to arrange this loan. Only then was allowed to return home.” Currently, the family returns to passports, where the visas have been sealed for another month, in the end they fear that the degrading and frightening experience they carry in early February.

Ahmed’s story is one of the many, where thousands of Afghan citizens in Pakistan, many of whom fled after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, faced an undertaken future under a modern government notification.

In a two -page document issued by Prime Minister Shaybaz Sharif’s office last month, the Pakistani government has set a three -stage plan to send Afghan citizens living in the country.

The first stage includes the “immediate” deportation of all non -documented Afghan citizens. This includes 800,000 Afghans who have not entered the country with valid visas, but since 2017 they were granted the Afghan citizens ’cards (ACC) by the government of Pakistan itself.

The second stage focuses on Afghan citizens who hold the so -called registration suit or Por cards, which were first released in 2006. The final stage will target Afghan citizens who may move to the third countries.

If the plan is implemented as absent, the righteous visa owners will remain only in the country – none of the other refugees who entered Pakistan under coercion without the appropriate documents to survive.

The notification actually escalates from a previously stopped approach to Afghan refugees. The plan was implemented in late 2023, and has already led to the return of more than 800,000 Afghan citizens to Afghanistan over the past 18 months, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (United Nations UNHCR).

Refugee hosting date

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Over the next twenty years, the Civil War was flooded in Afghanistan, the Taliban reached for the first time in 1996, and the successive waves of refugees arrived in Pakistan.

After the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, the fall of the Taliban created a civilian government, prompting thousands of Afghans to return home.

Ahmed, who first moved to Pakistan at the age of seven in 1997, was among those who returned in Kabul in 2010. After the family moved, she completed a certificate at work and started working in the Ministry of Finance in Afghanistan under the leadership of President Ashraf Ghani.

“I used to live happily in Afghanistan at the time. My mother and my sister said to the United States around 2019, but I was comfortable in Kabul.”

However, the amazing return of the Taliban to power in August 2021 has sparked another wave of displacement, seeking between 600,000 and 800,000 Afghans to a shelter in Pakistan.

Pakistan is currently hosting approximately 2.5 million Afghans, according to government estimates. Among them, about 1.3 million people have a guide to UNHCR (POR), which was first presented in 2006, while 800,000 people carry ACC, released in 2017. All of them, so far, keep all the purposes that were considered all The purposes that were considered as legitimate accommodations in Pakistan. Now they face an uncertain future under the three -stage “transportation” plan.

Those who arrived after the Taliban acquisition in August 2021 had to rely on visa renovations to stay in Pakistan, an expensive process, unpredictable and delayed.

Although official visa renewal fees are $ 20, Ahmed says that providing passports through legal channels often lead to long confiscation or direct rejection, which exposes the applicants to the risk of detention. So they pay visa agents to accelerate this process.

“We have to pay somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 rupees (54 to 72 dollars) to renew our visas. It has been valid for six months, but since January this year, the government has only granted visas for one month.”

Tense relationships and increased oppression

Pakistan was once one of the closest Afghan Taliban allies, Pakistan has witnessed relations with its neighbor over the past three years.

Islamabad blames the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan for their failure to reduce the activities of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tuke-Talban Pakistan, a group that appeared in 2007 and since then hundreds of attacks against Pakistani security.

In 2024 alone, Pakistan witnessed more than 500 attacks, which led to more than 1500 deaths between civilians and law enforcement employees.

The Pakistani government often accused Afghan citizens of participating in these attacks and claiming that Kabul provides shelter to TTP, a charge of the Afghan Taliban.

But the recent notification of the government indicates that Afghan refugees now find themselves in the middle of these bilateral tensions.

Afghan citizens who carry Por cards so far have some rights, such as the ability to open bank accounts and the opportunity to register in the citizens ’database in Pakistan. Now, suddenly, they are strangers, and on the waiting list for expulsion.

In July 2023, after the visit of the Commission’s Keys, Philipo Grande, Pakistan has spanned the health of the Por Card until June 30, 2025. The latest government notice indicates that there is no plan, yet, to extend their stay more than that.

Ikram Allah Jamalel, a 31 -year -old Afghan citizen born in Pakistan, lived almost throughout his life, with the exception of six years between 2015 and 2021, when he moved to Afghanistan with his family.

Jameel and his family were forced to go out after the Pakistani army launched a major military attack in the Khyber Bakhtongu Province in the northwest of the country, where they were living.

But after the fall of Kabul, Jamil, the largest among his eight siblings, chose to return to Pakistan.

“Because of my linguistic skills and relations, I have been able to support our Afghan society since 2021. But now, with the mysterious government policies, I am afraid that I will also be at risk of deportation,” said the island of the island.

The UNHCR spokesman, Pakistan, said that the commission is not quite clear about Pakistan’s plans.

“We are in contact with them constantly [the government] To explain what exactly what the plan is, but we have not given a clear answer.

The UNHCR says more than 800 Afghan citizens, including women and children, have already been deported from Islamabad and Rawalpindi since the beginning of the year.

Karam Pakistan praised the hosting of millions of Afghan refugees over the past four decades, Philip Chandler, Pakistan’s UNHCR president, urged the authorities to be more observed.

“The forced return to Afghanistan may endanger some people. Chamland said,” We urge Pakistan to continue to provide safety for the Afghans at risk, regardless of the state of documents. “

The deadline waving on the horizon

The government notification from January also set a final date on March 31 for Afghan citizens pending resettlement in the third countries. Those who fail to leave at that time risk.

Aphrodi described the situation as “complicated”, noting that thousands of Afghans arrived after August 2021 with legitimate asylum claims or outstanding resettlement cases.

He said: “There are people who are still being addressed, and others are afraid of their lives if they return to Afghanistan.”

Since 2021, approximately 500,000 Afghan citizens have called suddenly for help.

“We have issued documents for these people to show that they are listed in our system. All we want from the government is at least to know this, and not to arrest or deport them.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier this month that “nearly 80,000 Afghans” had already been resettled in other countries, while 40,000 in Pakistan remained awaiting the transition.

Jamel, who is currently working in a media, applied for the United States’ welcoming team, the United States Government Program for Refugees.

“I applied for this program last year until I received an email from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that my case will be addressed. I was conducted my first interview in December, and I reported that my settlement will start in a few days.”

But with the new Trump administration in his post, a generation is not sure of what the future hides for him, as the new American president has put a stop from the refugee program.

“After the arrival of the new president, I was informed that the program is suspended. I don’t know what will happen to that. Now, my powers end, and I have no idea what to do.”

The names of the star’s mark* to protect the identities have been changed.