(12 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
Torkham – 31 May 2025
1. Taliban intelligence officers stands on hill overlooking Torkham refugee camp
2. Various of children staying inside refugee camp
3. Various of utilities owned by Yar Mohamed, outside his tent inside refugee camp
4. Yar Mohammed
5. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Yar Mohammed, Afghan refugee:
“It is a matter of not having any trust in the Pakistani establishment and government. They gave us six hours to leave the country so we were forced to do so, but we could not disgrace ourselves and came here.”
6. Various of Yar Mohammed’s furniture outside his tent
7. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Yar Mohammed, Afghan refugee:
“I have no idea what the reason is or what isn’t. Since the Afghan government stands on its own feet, they (Pakistan) makes lame excuses.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
Kabul – 27 May 2025
8. Various of Afghan families packing their belongings in a refugee camp in Kabul before moving to their new location
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
Kabul – 3 June 2025
9. Yar Mohammed and his family unpacking outside their newly rented home in Kabul
10. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Yar Mohammed, Afghan refugee:
“Even if you spend 60 years there, you’ll always be a refugee.“
11. Various of Yar Mohammed’s children at new home
12. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Yar Mohammed, Afghan refugee:
"I’m very happy, if you take a few steps they (Pakistan) ask you for your ID card. "You’re Afghan, leave this place right away." This is my country and I’m independent, I can go anywhere.
"
13. Yar Mohammed taking pillows from his children and moving into their living room
14. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Yar Mohammed, Afghan refugee:
"I think they’ll have a good life in Afghanistan. Because if they get an education and work in the government, they can become a major, general or colonel or get political positions in the Interior or Defense Ministry. What would they become in Pakistan? Maybe they’ll sell vegetables, socks from a cart. So what’s better? There or here? Afghanistan is better.”
15. Various of Yar Mohammed and his children unpacking school books
STORYLINE:
Pakistan wants to expel three million Afghans by the end of this year, saying they are in the country illegally, but many have lived there for decades.
Returning refugees have been forced to head to a camp across the border, in Torkham, where thousands arrive every week and face a new future in a country they don’t know.
Pakistan denies targeting Afghans and says everyone leaving is treated humanely and with dignity.
Fifty-year-old Yar Mohammad – born in Afghanistan – lived in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for nearly 45 years.
The father of 12 built a successful business polishing floors, hiring several workers.
But suddenly, plain-clothed policemen knocked on his door.
They gave him six hours to leave.
He had first arrived at the Torkham camp, run by Afghanistan’s Taliban government, where each family receives a SIM card and 10,000 Afghanis ($145) in aid.
They can spend up to three days there before having to move on.
The camp director says some 150 families were arriving daily from Pakistan – far fewer than the roughly 1,200 families who were arriving about two months ago.
But he does expect another surge in the coming weeks after the Eid holidays.
“No way a person can wrap up so much business in six hours, especially if they spent 45 years in one place,” he said.
It wants them gone.
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