Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis
A mass expulsion of Afghan migrants could destabilize the region and fuel radicalization. The West should pressure Islamabad to change course.
Where next?
Photographer: Wakil Kohsar/AFP
Amid wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, Western governments have limited capacity to deal with another humanitarian crisis. Yet a decision by Pakistan to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghans threatens to create a new wave of refugees and destabilize an already volatile region. Preventing the chaos from spreading needs to be a priority for the US and its partners.
In October, Pakistan’s caretaker government announced that all foreigners residing in the country without legal documents would have to leave by Nov. 1. Pakistan hosts more than 3 million refugees and migrants from neighboring Afghanistan, including roughly 600,000 who fled after the Taliban regained power in August 2021. About 1.7 million of them were believed to lack proper papers when the expulsion order was issued. Since then, more than 400,000 have crossed into Afghanistan.