As deadline to leave Pakistan expires, official says over 100,000 Afghans gone home

Thousands of undocumented Afghan migrants are fleeing Pakistan in fear of arrest and deportation by authorities. Pakistan has set 1 November as the deadline for 1.7 million Afghans to leave or face deportation in a measure authorities say is meant to protect the country’s ‘welfare and security’. Pakistan has recently experienced a rise sharp in attacks which the government has blamed on militants operating from neighbouring Afghanistan. But for many Afghans, Pakistan had become home for many years: “We had a good life over the last 45 years since arriving in Pakistan. I was born in Pakistan,” says Shafique Ullah.

Pakistani security forces have detained and deported dozens of Afghan nationals who were living in the country illegally after a government-set deadline for them...