Deportation of undocumented Afghans from Pakistan

In October 2023, the government of Pakistan announced a plan to deport foreign nationals who either did not have valid visas or had overstayed their visa for more than one year. The mass deportations primarily affected those Afghans who had no legal documents to be in Pakistan. There were an estimated 3.8 million Afghans in Pakistan at the time the deportation order was announced, according to the United Nations, while Pakistani authorities believed the number to be as high as 4.4 million. Afghans accounted for 98% of the foreign nationals in Pakistan. Pakistan has repatriated a total of 1.7 million Afghans, from 15 September, 2023 to 29 November 2025.

The government cited increasing crime and violence, including suicide attacks, as the motivation for the mass deportations. However, outside observers noted there were likely also political reasons for the sudden deportations, for example that Pakistan hoped to pressure the Taliban interim government to crackdown on TTP safe havens in Afghanistan.