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Reactions over Pakistan’s forced deportations of Afghan immigrants
The forced deportation of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan has faced various reactions across the country.
Residents of Balkh, Jawzjan and Sar-e-Pul provinces condemn the expulsion of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan, asking Islamabad to stop this process and let Afghan immigrants leave this country gradually.
Pakistan’s action to forcibly deport Afghan immigrants has triggered the anger of Afghan citizens.
“Pakistan has violated international law with this action. Now that the immigrants are returning from Pakistan, we appreciate and welcome them,” said Nawed, a resident of Balkh.
In the meantime, with the arrival of the cold season, another concern is that the migrants will face serious challenges and need cooperation.
“The cold season is approaching and life is getting difficult, and we ask the government to take care of the migrants,” said Ziba Aminyan, a resident of Balkh.
Residents of Jawzjan and Sar-e-Pul provinces also said that they are ready to cooperate with the returnees.
“We ask the aid organizations and the Islamic Emirate to provide work, clothes, food and shelter for the returnees,” said Ghulam Sakhi Frootan, said Sar-e-Pul resident.
“The forced deportation of immigrants from Pakistan is an un-Islamic and inhumane act and is against the culture of neighborliness. I request all my compatriots to stand by their deported compatriots in this difficult situation and ask them to support them in every way and stand beside them,” said Juma Khan, a resident of Jawzjan.
Simultaneously, Balkh province’s directorate of refugees said that they are prepared to deal with returning migrants from Pakistan.
“For all returning migrants, we assure them that the Islamic Emirate is at their service and provides them with work and shelter,” said Asadullah Wafa, head of Balkh’s migrant affairs.
The process of forced deportation of immigrants has also faced international reactions, from the United Nations to other human rights institutions. Everyone has clearly said that Pakistan should stop the current process of deportation.
Although the residents of the northeastern provinces of the country welcome the return of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan, they consider Pakistan’s policy towards immigrants a wrong, inhumane and hasty.
“The Islamic Emirate should provide shelter for the returnees because they are Afghans and should return to Afghanistan,” said Abbas, a resident of Takhar.
“Afghanistan is currently safe. I ask the Afghan immigrants to return to their country,” said Safan, a resident of Takhar.
Residents of the Northeast ask people to help the immigrants who return from Pakistan with coordination, like they gave a handful of hands to the Herat earthquake victims, so that they do not feel indifferent in their homeland.
“We are asking the current government of Afghanistan to create jobs for the immigrants, and just as they took the hands of the Herat earthquake victims, now is the time to take the hands of the immigrants,” said Dawood Ahmadi, a resident of Takhar.
“Pakistan has imposed a restriction on Afghan immigrants that they can only carry 50,000 Pakistani rupees with them when they return,” said Ahmadullah, a resident of Takhar.
The residents of Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces welcome the return of the migrants and call on the IEA and aid institutions to cooperate with them.
In Herat, the residents have also reacted to the wave of deportations of Afghan immigrants from Pakistan. They say that in a situation where the neighboring countries need to be more humble with the Afghan people and help them, they make the current crisis in the country worse.
Some experts also say that the process of deporting Afghan immigrants from Pakistan deepens the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. It is necessary for the interim administration of Pakistan to show flexibility and deal with the Afghan immigrant community in accordance with international conventions.
One month ago, the government of Pakistan announced that it would deport illegal immigrants from the country, now this process has officially started.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
Sixty-one members of the U.S. Congress have urged the Trump administration to reverse its decision to halt immigration processing for Afghan nationals, warning that the move unfairly targets Afghan nationals following a deadly shooting involving two National Guard members.
In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the lawmakers said the incident should not be used to vilify Afghans who are legally seeking entry into the United States. They stressed that Afghan applicants undergo extensive vetting involving multiple U.S. security agencies.
The letter criticized the suspension of Special Immigrant Visa processing, the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan, and broader travel and asylum restrictions, warning that such policies endanger Afghan allies who supported U.S. forces during the war.
“Exploiting this tragedy to sow division and inflame fear will not make America safer. Abandoning those who made the courageous choice to stand beside us signals to those we may need as allies in the future that we cannot be trusted to honor our commitments. That is a mistake we cannot afford,” the group said.
The U.S. admitted nearly 200,000 Afghan nationals in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military and their families still wait at military bases and refugee camps around the world for a small number of SIVs.
An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck Afghanistan on Friday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake occurred at 10:09 local time at a depth of 35 km, USGS said.
Its epicentre was 25 kilometres from Nahrin district of Baghlan province in north Afghanistan.
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