Pakistan’s Interior Ministry received its first mandatory daily provincial enforcement reports on July 11, marking the shift from voluntary departure to active enforcement in the country’s Afghan deportation drive after the July 10 deadline expired (Dawn; Arab News). Provincial governments, police commanders, and district administrations are required to submit daily tallies showing the number of undocumented Afghans identified, arrested, detained, and deported.
The scale of what is now being managed is substantial. More than 146,000 Afghan nationals have been deported from Pakistan so far in 2026, with numbers rising sharply since April 1, according to government figures. Total returns and deportations since the Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan began in October 2023 exceed two million.
The more than 14,000 families who departed voluntarily in the first week of July — before the deadline — represent the compliant portion of the population. Those who remain after July 10 without valid documentation include UNHCR-registered refugees who have chosen to hold their ground on legal status grounds, families with mixed documentation, long-resident communities with deep economic roots in Pakistan, and individuals who could not afford or arrange transport.
The registered refugee problem
Human Rights Watch, in a detailed report released in April 2026, documented a significant surge in Pakistan’s forced return of Afghan refugees holding valid UNHCR Proof of Registration cards — people who were supposed to be protected from refoulement under the terms of the Pakistani government’s own stated policy (HRW). HRW found that police were detaining card-holders and processing them through deportation channels without the status verification required under the IFRP’s own procedural guidelines.
The enforcement phase that began July 11 — with police under pressure to generate numbers for daily ministry reports — creates structural incentives for exactly this kind of procedural shortcut. The daily reporting requirement measures volume, not the legal basis for each deportation.
The UNHCR has renewed its call for Pakistan to halt forced returns and to ensure a differentiated approach that protects registered refugees. Pakistan’s government has maintained that its enforcement applies only to the undocumented; what happens on the ground in the days ahead will determine whether that distinction holds.
