Karachi, Pakistan — Born and raised in Pakistan to parents who fled neighboring Afghanistan half a century ago, an 18-year-old found himself at the mercy of Karachi police, who took his cash, phone and motorcycle and sent him to a deportation center.
Frightened and bewildered, he spent three days there before being sent back to Afghanistan, a place he had never been, with nothing but the clothes on his back.
The young man is one of at least 1.7 million Afghans who made Pakistan their home as their country descended deeper into decades of war. But they have been living there without legal permission and are now the target of a harsh crackdown on migrants who Pakistan says must leave.
Some 600,000 Afghans have returned home since last October, when the crackdown began, meaning at least a million remain hidden in Pakistan. They have withdrawn from public view, abandoned their jobs and rarely leave their neighborhoods for fear of being deported next.
It is more difficult for them to earn money, rent accommodation, buy food or receive medical help because they risk being caught by the police or being reported by Pakistanis.
The young man, who had worked as a mechanic in an auto shop since he was 15, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested and deported.
He has requested the same documentation that his family has, but he will not get it. Pakistan does not issue documents to Afghan refugees or their children.
“My life is here. “I have no friends or family in Afghanistan, nothing,” the young man told The Associated Press. “He wanted to return (to Pakistan) sooner, but things had to calm down first,” he said, referring to the anti-immigrant raids sweeping the country at the time.
Taliban authorities gave him 2,500 Afghanis ($34) once he entered Afghanistan to start a new life. He was sent to the northeastern province of Takhar, where he slept in mosques and religious schools because he didn’t know anyone to stay with. He spent his time playing cricket and football and borrowed other people’s phones to call his family.
Six weeks later, he traveled from Takhar to the Afghan capital, Kabul, and then to the eastern province of Nangarhar. She walked for hours in the dark before encountering human traffickers hired by his brother in Pakistan. His job was to take it to Peshawar, the capital of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in northwest Pakistan, for the price of $70.
He is relieved to be reunited with his family. But he is vulnerable.
Police have painted numbers on houses in their neighborhood to show how many people live there and how many have documentation. Hundreds of Afghan families have fled the area since the operation began. There are fewer people to hide among.
Tens of thousands of Afghans easily live in these neighborhoods of Karachi. But they have no drainage systems or health care or educational facilities. There are few women on the streets, and those who do venture out wear burqas, often the blue ones most commonly seen in Afghanistan.
Lawyer Moniza Kakar, who works extensively with the Afghan community in Karachi, said there are generations of families without paperwork. Without it, they cannot access basic services such as schools or hospitals.
Afghans were already off the radar before the crackdown, and rumors abound that Pakistan wants to expel all Afghans, even those with documentation. Pakistan says no such decision has been made.
In another Karachi neighborhood with a majority Afghan population, people disperse when the police arrive and disappear into a maze of alleys. A network of informants spread the news of the visits.
Kakar is despairing about the plight of Afghans remaining in Pakistan. “Sometimes they don’t have food, that’s why we appeal to the UN to help them,” he said. To earn money or receive medical help, they would have previously traveled from these neighborhoods to the heart of Karachi, but they can no longer afford such trips. They are also likely to be arrested, he added.
Some show Kakar their ID cards from the time of General Zia Ul-Haq, the military dictator whose rule in Pakistan coincided with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. “They wonder why they don’t have citizenship after 40 years. They do not share their location. They don’t come out. “They live in properties rented in someone else’s name.”
There are children who were born in Pakistan who have grown up and have children of their own. “The children do not have any identification documents. “All of them have an undecided future,” Kakar said.
Syed Habib Ur Rehman works as a media coordinator at the Consulate General of Afghanistan in Karachi. He spends a lot of time in these communities.
“There are empty houses, empty stores,” Rehman said. “The markets are empty. The Pakistanis we know do not agree with what is happening. They say they have had a good life with us. “Their business has fallen because many Afghan families have left.”
The Afghans interviewed by the AP had different reasons for never obtaining their status. Some said they were working abroad. Others didn’t have time. No one thought Pakistan would ever throw them out.
Mohammad Khan Mughal, 32, was born in Karachi and has three children. Before the crackdown began, the Afghan man had a tandoor business. The police told him to close.
“My customers started complaining because they couldn’t buy bread from me,” he said. He and his family went to the city of Quetta, in the southwest of Balochistan province, to escape the raids.
He returned to Karachi a few days later and has no intention of leaving.
“This is my home,” he said, with pride and sadness. “This is my city.”
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