Pakistani authorities have sharply escalated abusive raids, arbitrary detentions, and forced returns of Afghan refugees following renewed border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Police operations have left thousands of already vulnerable Afghan refugees, including children, facing serious barriers to health care, education, and other essential services.
"Pakistani authorities are spreading fear among Afghan refugees instead of treating them as people in need of protection," said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Abusive police practices are forcing people to forgo food and health care while mass deportations are returning refugees to possible persecution and worse in Afghanistan."
As fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan has intensified since February 2026, police have expanded operations against Afghan communities in several Pakistani cities, carrying out door-to-door raids, late-night home searches, and arrests without warrants. Police have detained Afghans with valid visas along with those without documentation, which many Afghans lack since the Pakistani government stopped renewing Proof of Registration cards and other residency documents for Afghan refugees in 2023.
Police generally transfer detained refugees to holding centers, then expel them. In 2026 alone, more than 146,000 Afghans have been deported from Pakistan, with the numbers increasing since April 1.
Between February and April, Human Rights Watch interviewed eight Afghans in Pakistan and four who had recently arrived in Afghanistan, as well as representatives of aid organizations working with Afghan refugees. Those interviewed said that police have arrested Afghans while they were shopping, going to school, and seeking day labor, confiscating their phones and cash and demanding bribes in exchange for release. Those unable to pay have been detained and expelled.
Many are at serious risk if returned to Afghanistan, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and others because of their past involvement with the former Afghan government or perceived criticism of the Taliban. Among those detained and forcibly returned are journalists who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban retook power in August 2021. Reporters Without Borders reported that Pakistani police have forcibly returned at least nine Afghan journalists-including some with valid visas-since the beginning of 2026.
An Afghan refugee who had been forcibly returned said that she and her family had been arrested at their house: "We begged them not to deport us, but they didn't listen. In Haji camp in Islamabad only people who could afford to pay were released, and we were deported back to Afghanistan, where we live in hiding."
Afghan refugees in Pakistan cannot access health facilities and services unless they can provide valid visas, even in medical emergencies involving children. Fear of arrest has prevented families from seeking medical care, worsening physical and mental health conditions.
"My daughter is ill, and I can't take her to the hospital in fear of police arrest," said an Afghan woman in Islamabad. "She hasn't been eating well for the past six weeks and I am really worried." Aid workers have said that they are aware of refugees with serious illnesses who cannot get care either because they do not have documentation or are too frightened to seek it.
Many Afghan families keep their children indoors to avoid apprehension. They described living in constant fear, unable to carry out ordinary daily activities because of the risk of arrest. One Afghan woman said that police detained her husband and nine-year-old daughter while they were shopping and expelled them shortly afterward, leaving the family separated.
The increased abuse began after the major escalation in fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan in mid-October 2025. More than 1,000 Afghans, including young children, were detained during a November operation in the Surkhab refugee camp in Balochistan province. The authorities bulldozed homes and businesses inside the camp after removing residents. Those detained were transferred to the Chaman border crossing and forcibly returned to Afghanistan, often without knowing where their family members were or whether they would be reunited.
In numerous cases over recent months, families have been forcibly separated. Children as young as 13 have been sent back to Afghanistan alone, while parents have been left behind without information about their children's whereabouts.
Some deported families have ended up in camps in Afghanistan along the border with harsh living conditions and a lack of access to necessities such as food, health care, and shelter. Women and girls face especially severe restrictions on freedom of movement.
An October 2023 wave of deportations and expulsions drove over 5.4 million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan. After clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan broke out in October 2025, services for refugees held in border camps or transiting to Afghanistan have dwindled as aid organizations have reduced their activities due to funding shortages.
As of March 17, 2026, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had documented at least 76 civilian deaths and 213 injuries in Afghanistan, most from cross-border shelling during the recent fighting.
Pakistan's forced returns and expulsions of Afghans may amount to violations of Pakistan's obligations as a party to the UN Convention Against Torture and the customary international law prohibition against refoulement or forced return to a place where they would face a genuine risk of persecution, torture, or other ill-treatment, or a threat to their life.
"Pakistan should take action against abusive police practices and immediately stop forcibly returning Afghan refugees," Abbasi said. "Other governments should raise their concerns about these practices with the Pakistani government, as well as denouncing continuing human rights violations by Afghanistan."
