New York, April 23: At a time when Pakistan is portraying itself as a peacenik, a renowned US-based international human rights organization has highlighted the extreme “abusive practices” of the Pakistani authorities towards Afghan refugees and escalation in the trend in the recent weeks.
“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 (HRW) has said in its latest report.
“Police operations (in Pakistan) have left thousands of already vulnerable Afghan refugees, including children, facing serious barriers to health care, education, and other essential services,” it pointed out.
“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.”
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, the HRW said.
The damning report, highlighting the ugly face of the Pakistani state, comes at a time when its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and all-powerful military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir have been projecting themselves as ‘peaceniks’ by volunteering mediation between the US and Iran.
Interestingly, US President Donald Trump has been showering praise on Asim Munir and Shehbaz Sharif.
Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at HRW, said, “Pakistani authorities are spreading fear among Afghan refugees instead of treating them as people in need of protection.”
The report said the Pakistani police “expanded operations against Afghan communities in several Pakistani cities, carrying out door-to-door raids, late-night home searches, and arrests without warrants” after fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan intensified since February this year.
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, it said.
Police generally transfer detained refugees to holding centers and then expels them.
In 2026 alone, more than 146,000 Afghans have been deported from Pakistan, with the numbers increasing since April 1, the HRW said.
It said that 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.
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 Pakistani 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.
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 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.” (NVI)
