By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan arrested or detained more than 100,000 Afghan nationals in the first 10 months of 2025, the vast majority of them holders of Afghan Citizen Cards or undocumented migrants, as the country pressed ahead with a sweeping deportation drive, according to a United Nations refugee agency report.
The report, compiled by the International Organization for Migration and published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, documented 100,971 arrests and detentions of Afghans from Jan. 1 to Nov. 8 this year — a sharp escalation from the 9,006 recorded in all of 2024 and the 26,299 in 2023. No comparable data exists for earlier years; the IOM only began systematically tracking such cases in January 2023.
The three districts with the highest numbers were all in provinces that host large Afghan populations: Chagai and Quetta in Balochistan, and Attock in Punjab.
In the single week of Nov. 2-8 alone, authorities arrested or detained 13,380 Afghans, a 72 percent jump from the previous week. Afghan Citizen Card holders and undocumented Afghans accounted for 76 percent of those cases, while registered refugees holding Proof of Registration cards made up the remaining 24 percent. Forty-three percent of the week’s arrests occurred in Punjab and 41 percent in Balochistan.
The surge coincided with a parallel increase in returns and deportations. From Nov. 2 to 8, 55,768 Afghans left Pakistan through the main border crossings at Torkham and Ghulam Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Chaman, Badini and Bahramcha in Balochistan — a 49 percent rise in overall returns and a 75 percent rise in deportations compared with the previous week. The reopening of the Torkham crossing on Nov. 1 after a brief closure contributed to the higher numbers, though the flow remained well below the peaks seen in late August and September.
Among those who left during the reporting week, 48 percent were Proof of Registration card holders (most returning voluntarily through UNHCR-assisted centers), 43 percent were undocumented, and 9 percent held Afghan Citizen Cards. Among those formally deported, 84 percent were undocumented, 13 percent held Proof of Registration cards, and 3 percent held Afghan Citizen Cards.
Since the current phase of the repatriation campaign began on Sept. 15, 2023, a total of 1,723,481 Afghans have returned, the report said. Since April 1, 2025, the figure stands at 869,448, of whom 115,159 — roughly 13 percent — were deported. Fear of arrest was cited as the primary reason for departure by 93 percent of undocumented Afghans and Afghan Citizen Card holders, and by 47 percent of registered refugees.
The most common points of departure inside Pakistan were Quetta (20 percent), Attock (13 percent) and Islamabad (9 percent). The most frequent intended destinations inside Afghanistan were Kunduz (19 percent), Nangarhar (18 percent) and Kabul (17 percent).
This year’s measures have built on a series of government directives. In January, authorities ordered Afghans to leave the Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi or face deportation. In April, the government launched the second phase of its Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan, extending it to Afghan Citizen Card holders in addition to undocumented migrants. In July, after Proof of Registration cards expired on June 30, authorities issued orders for the repatriation of registered refugees and set a Sept. 1 deadline for their departure.
On the ground, police operations have continued unabated. In Nokundi, a remote town in Balochistan’s Chagai district, law-enforcement agencies this month raided several residences and detained 434 Afghan nationals, officials said. In one operation in Killi Burhanabad, about 200 Afghans were taken into custody after the homeowner and three others fled. In follow-up raids on two nearby houses, another 234 Afghans were detained. All were transferred to the Girdi Jungle Refugee Camp to await deportation.
The intensified campaign has unfolded against the backdrop of Pakistan’s long-standing role as host to one of the world’s largest refugee populations, a burden that officials say has become unsustainable amid economic strain and security concerns. More than three million Afghans were living in Pakistan when the Taliban regained power in 2021, according to U.N. estimates, though hundreds of thousands have since left. The latest figures indicate the exodus is accelerating once again.
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