Over 165,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan in the past month following Islamabad’s ultimatum to 1.7 million refugees to leave the country or face arrest and deportation, news agency AFP reported quoting officials. This comes after the Pakistan government gave a deadline to Afghans living illegally in the country to leave by November 1 or face detention.

Earlier, Pakistan’s interim interior minister, Sarfaraz Bugti, cited security concerns as the reason behind the government's move.

Officials at Torkham, Pakistan’s biggest border crossing in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, toiled into the early hours of Thursday morning to clear a 7-kilometre-long queue of 28,000 Afghans. Since then, border traffic has slowed, with officials encouraging Afghans to continue to leave the country willingly while authorities carry out search operations.

Deputy Commissioner of the border district, Abdul Nasir Khan told AFP, “Illegal Afghans arrived at Torkham in heavy numbers because of the deadline ... people can still return voluntarily but today only 1,000 are present at the border.”

According to the provincial home department, around 1,29,000 people have fled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while 38,100 have crossed via Chaman in Balochistan, AFP reported quoting border authorities.

This influx has left authorities on the Afghan side of the border struggling to process the sheer volume of returnees, some of whom are setting foot in Afghanistan for the first time in their lives, reported Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces have launched a drive to arrest and deport Afghans who are living in the country without valid documents after the deadline for them to leave expired. According to Pakistan’s interior minister, 64 Afghans were rounded up, detained and deported on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported.

Pakistan has historically been a sanctuary for Afghan nationals, with a significant number seeking refuge after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. In more recent times, between 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans migrated to Pakistan after the Taliban regained power in 2021.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s decision has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and the United Nations. However, Bugti denied that the repatriation campaign specifically targeted Afghans, stating that most of the undocumented individuals are from Afghanistan. To enforce deportation, the Pakistani government is establishing deportation centres in all four provinces to detain foreigners until they are sent back.

France 24 quoted human rights lawyer, Moniza Kakar saying, “The constitution of Pakistan gives every person who is present on this soil right to a fair trial, but these refugees have been denied that right.”

The deportation order coincided with a surge in armed attacks in Pakistan, which the government attributes to Afghanistan-based groups and nationals. According to Al-Jazeera, Bugti asserted that 14 out of 24 suicide bomb attacks this year were carried out by Afghan nationals. However, the allegations were denied by the Afghan Taliban.