PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Pakistan opened more border centres on Friday to speed up the return of tens of thousands of undocumented Afghans, an official said, two days after a deadline to leave or face expulsion expired and ignoring pleas to give the plan a rethink.

Pakistan has brushed off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider expelling more than a million of 4 million Afghans in the country, saying they had been involved in Islamist militant attacks and crimes that undermined the security of the country.

Afghanistan denies the accusations.

The U.N. refugee agency, the International Organisation for Migration and the U.N. Children’s Fund on Friday expressed concern for the safety of children and families affected by the expulsion, saying a humanitarian crisis was unfolding with winter on the way.

Mullah Hassan Akhund, prime minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration, also expressed reservations.

“It is 100% against all principles, come and talk face to face,” he said in a video-recorded statement.

Facilities at the main northwestern border crossing of Torkham have been increased three times to cater for the rising number of returnees, said Abdul Nasir Khan, deputy commissioner for Khyber district.

“Everything is normal now as the returnees no longer need to wait in queues for hours,” he told Reuters.

Those arriving in Afghanistan complained of hardships.

“We spent three days on border in Pakistan. We had very bad situation,” said Mohammad Ismael Rafi, 55, who said he lived for 22 years in the southwestern Pakistani border town of Chaman where he had a retail business.

“Thank God that we have arrived back to our country,” he said. It took him six days to leave his home in Pakistan with his 16 family members and belongings to reach a makeshift tent village on the other side of the border.

Rafi accused Pakistani officials of taking bribes, a charge Islamabad denies.

Afghan schoolboy Sarfraz, 16, who goes by one name, said he and his father had never visited Afghanistan and did not want to go there now. His grandfather migrated to Pakistan decades ago.

“Where should we go?” he asked in response to a Reuters query in northwestern Peshawar. “There is no work there. We’re poor people. We are being forced. We have to leave.”

TRANSIT CAMPS

The Taliban administration in Afghanistan, scrambling to cope with the sudden influx, has set up temporary transit camps where food and medical assistance will be provided.

Refugee groups have reported chaotic and desperate scenes at the camps.

Pakistani authorities started rounding up foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before the deadline.

Many of the migrants fled Afghanistan during the decades of armed conflict since the late 1970s, while the Islamist Taliban’s takeover after the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces in 2021 led to another exodus.

Khan, the official, said 19,744 Afghans had crossed the Torkham border on Thursday, 147,949 in total since the government announced the deadline.

More than 50,000 have left through southwestern Pakistani border crossing at Chaman, the minister for information in Balochistan, Jan Achakzai, told Reuters.

Pakistani authorities said they were open to delaying repatriation for people with health or other issues, including a seven-month pregnant woman who was told on Friday to stay in Pakistan until she had given birth.

Islamabad says many of the undocumented Afghans have obtained national identity cards through illegitimate means. The government has been identifying and blocking all such suspected cards.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Thousands of people swamped Pakistan’s main northwestern border crossing seeking to cross into Afghanistan on Thursday, a day after the government’s deadline expired for undocumented foreigners to leave or face expulsion.

Pakistani authorities began rounding up undocumented foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before Wednesday’s deadline. More than a million Afghans could have to leave or face arrest and forcible expulsion as a result of the ultimatum delivered by the Pakistan government a month ago.

Scrambling to cope with the sudden influx, the Taliban-run administration in Afghanistan said temporary transit camps had been set up, and food and medical assistance would be provided, but relief agencies reported dire conditions across the border.

“The organisations’ teams stationed in the areas where people are returning from Pakistan have reported chaotic and desperate scenes among those who have returned,” the Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council and International Rescue Committee said in a joint statement.

The Pakistani government has brushed off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider its expulsion plan, saying Afghans had been involved in Islamist militant attacks and in crime that undermined the security of the country.

BORDER BOTTLENECK

More than 24,000 Afghans crossed the northwestern Torkham crossing into Afghanistan on Wednesday alone, Deputy Commissioner Khyber Tribal District Abdul Nasir Khan said. “There were a large number waiting for clearance and we made extra arrangements to better facilitate the clearance process.”

Authorities had worked well into the night at a camp set up near the crossing, he added. The border, at the northwestern end of the Khyber Pass on the road between Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, is usually closed by sundown.

Khan said 128,000 Afghans had left through the crossing since the Pakistani government issued its directive.

Others were crossing the border at Chaman, in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.

Major roads leading to border crossings were jammed with trucks carrying families and whatever belongings they could carry.

Aid agencies estimated the number of arrivals at Torkham had risen from 300 people a day to 9,000-10,000 since last month’s expulsion decree.

Some Afghans who have been ordered to leave have spent decades in Pakistan, while some have never even been to Afghanistan, and wonder how they can start a new life there.

Of the more than 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates 1.7 million are undocumented.

Many fled during the decades of armed conflict that Afghanistan suffered since the late 1970s, while the Islamist Taliban’s takeover after the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces in 2021 led to another exodus.

Aid agencies warned that the mass movement of people could tip Afghanistan into yet another crisis and expressed “grave concerns” about the survival and reintegration of the returnees, particularly with the onset of winter.

International humanitarian funding for Afghanistan dried up after the Taliban took over and imposed restrictions on women.

SHORTAGE OF TRANSPORT

Over 1,500 undocumented Afghans were being brought to the southwestern Chaman crossing after being rounded up in police raids in different areas of Pakistan, including the major port Karachi, Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai said.

People crossing from Chaman into Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak have run into trouble finding transport to their final destinations, said Ismatullah, a bus service operator.

“A huge number of people are coming from Karachi but face a shortage of buses and trucks,” he told Reuters by phone from Spin Boldak. “Obviously in such situations the fares have increased. The (Afghan) government is helping people according to its ability, but it is not enough.”

KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s midnight deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave expired on Thursday, as more than 140,000 migrants, mostly Afghans, were estimated to have left voluntarily.

Authorities rounded up people to temporary holding centres a day earlier, ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, set a month ago, to leave or face expulsion. Some who have spent decades in Pakistan crammed into trucks queued on the border.

WHY IS PAKISTAN DEPORTING FOREIGNERS?

The sudden expulsion threat came after suicide bombings this year that the government said involved Afghans, though without providing evidence.

Pakistani authorities said Afghan nationals were found to be involved in attacks against the government and the army, including 14 of this year’s 24 suicide bombings.

Islamabad has also blamed them for smuggling and other militant attacks as well as petty crimes. Kabul rejects the accusations.

Pakistan has brushed off calls to reconsider its decision from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies, who have urged it to incorporate into its plan a way to identify and protect Afghans facing the risk of persecution at home.

HOW MANY FOREIGNERS ARE THERE?

The vast majority of undocumented foreigners in Pakistan are Afghans, and, while authorities have not yet provided official data, only a few would comprise people from Iran and some central Asian countries, among others.

Pakistan is home to more than 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, about 1.7 million of them undocumented, Islamabad says, although many have lived in Pakistan for their entire lives.

About 600,000 Afghans have crossed into neighbouring Pakistan since the Taliban took over in 2021, joining a large number there since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the ensuing civil wars.

Islamabad says deportation will be orderly, carried out in phases and start with those who have criminal records. Authorities have threatened raids in areas suspected of housing “undocumented foreigners” after Wednesday.

WHAT IS AFGHANISTAN SAYING ABOUT THE DEPORTATION?

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has dismissed Pakistan’s accusations against Afghan migrants.

It has asked all countries hosting Afghan refugees to give them more time to prepare for repatriation.

“We call on them not to deport forcefully Afghans without preparation, rather give them enough time and countries should use tolerance,” the administration said in a social media post on Afghans in Pakistan and elsewhere.

It assured Afghans who have left over political concerns that they could return and live peacefully in the country.