(15 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mardan, Pakistan – 8 April 2025
1. Various of truck loaded with an Afghan refugee family home appliances
2. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Ajab Gul, Afghan refugee:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 3 & 4++
“We have a lot of problems, and the Pakistani official) have forced us to leave. We didn’t want to go. They even raided our houses two to three times, we are going under compulsion, not willingly.”
3. Various of truck
4. Truck leaving carrying Afghan family
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Peshawar, Pakistan – 8 April 2025
5. Wide of Peshawar city
6. Tilt down of an Afghani restaurant run by Afghan citizens
7. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Akber Khan, restaurant owner:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 6 & 8++
“I have been here for almost 50 years. I came here when I was a child, and I have never been to Afghanistan. I don’t know what Afghanistan is like. My wedding and my children’s weddings were held here, and about ten of my family members are buried here in Pakistan. That is why we have no desire to leave Pakistan.”
8. Various of Afghani restaurant with people eating
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Torkhum, Pakistan – 9 April 2025
9. Trucks parked near Pakistan-Afghanistan Border carrying Afghan refugees’ families home appliances
10. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Jannat Gul, Afghan refugee:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 11++
“Our children’s education has been destroyed, and now that we are going there, we have no connections there, no acquaintances, no one knows us, in fact, people there often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghans.”
11. Various of trucks parked near border
STORYLINE:
At a highway rest stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, a truck carrying 30 Afghans stopped to give passengers a break before they left Pakistan for good.
They had come from Punjab. Three families nestled among furniture, clothes and bundled-up personal items. A woman in a blue burqa, the kind commonly seen in Afghanistan, clambered down from a ladder while children were lowered to the floor by hand.
They are just a few of the more than 3 million Afghans that Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third of those are living in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or Proof of Registration.
Ajab Gul said the actions of Pakistani officials had forced them to leave. “We didn’t want to go. They raided our houses two or three times. We are going under duress.”
Another truckload of passengers from the Punjab pulled over ahead of the Bab-e-Khyber monument by the Torkham border crossing to speak to AP.
Jannat Gul outlined the dilemma that awaited many.
“Our children’s education [in Afghanistan] has been destroyed. We’re going there but we have no connections, no acquaintances. In fact, people often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghan.”
There were happier scenes at the Kababayan Refugee Camp in Peshawar, where children played and ate ice cream in the sunshine. The camp was established in 1980 shortly after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and is home to over 15,000 people and has schools, a health centre, electricity and drinking water.
School is a crucial reason for Afghans wanting to stay in Pakistan because the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Muhammad Zameer, a camp resident, said girls’ education was “non-existent” across the border. At least in Peshawar the kids were happy and studying.
It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the region.
AP Video by Muhammad Yousaf
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