ISLAMABAD, September 5, 2025 – Pakistan has firmly rejected calls from the United Nations to halt the mass expulsion of Afghan refugees, declaring that the country alone will decide who is allowed to stay.
The statement came after UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged Islamabad to suspend its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, following a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan that killed more than 2,200 people and reduced villages to rubble.
“Any people with no documentation should leave. This is what Pakistan is doing and what any other country would do, including in Europe,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan at a press briefing. “It is our territory — we decide who stays in.”
According to the World Health Organisation, around 270,000 returnees have resettled in districts directly hit by the quake along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Reports also indicate that Afghans awaiting relocation to Germany have faced police raids on guest houses where they were temporarily housed, further complicating their uncertain status.
Pakistan has hosted Afghans for over four decades, from the Soviet invasion in the 1980s to the Taliban takeover in 2021. However, citing a surge in militancy and cross-border insurgent attacks, Islamabad launched a sweeping crackdown in 2023.
Since then, more than 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return, including 443,000 this year alone, according to UN figures. The policy has increasingly targeted registered refugees as well — with around 1.3 million holders of UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards ordered to leave by September 1, or face arrest and deportation.
Despite international appeals, Pakistan has maintained that the expulsions are a matter of sovereignty and national security.