Six million refugees being forced back to Afghanistan

**Oliver Conway** (0:00)
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 Hours GMT on Tuesday the 1st of September. We report from the Pakistan-Afghan frontier on the biggest cross-border movement anywhere in the world. Israel says it's captured a senior member of Hamas in Gaza, as Palestinian medics say two children and a woman were killed. And Russia hits Ukraine for a sixth day in a row, killing at least 12 people, including railway workers.
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For decades, people fleeing war, poverty and repression in Afghanistan have crossed into Pakistan and Iran. Over the past three years, more than six million of them have been sent back. But following appeals from the UN, Pakistan has now temporarily exempted 16,000 Afghans from deportation. Rights groups say many are at risk if they return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucet, has just visited the Torkham border crossing.

**Lise Doucet** (1:17)
They call this zero point. It's the main crossing between Pakistan, about 50 meters away, and Afghanistan.
And there's a tide of Afghan families coming through these metal gates. A woman with a goat on a rope, a man with a huge suitcase on his head, and three little girls, each of them carrying a rooster or a chicken. Entire families, many generations, who've grown up on the other side, spending decades there and coming back to a country many have never even been to before.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:57)
The journey was very difficult. My husband had been deported 20 days earlier, and I had to borrow money from several people to make the journey.

**Lise Doucet** (2:07)
What do you say to the Pakistanis?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:11)
We spent many good years there and lived well, but this year, the Pakistanis caused us a great deal of hardship.
They would not allow my husband to work. There was work available, but he was afraid to go because the police might arrest him.

**Lise Doucet** (2:29)
Every Afghan family we speak with speaks about being mistreated by the Pakistanis. We can't confirm that right here. But Pakistan has been saying that it's given refuge to millions of Afghans for decades, through all of its wars. And it's time for the Afghans to go home.
We're looking in to this makeshift office, Taliban flags everywhere. Then from here, those who have documents can go on to the United Nations, and then they'll be given a refuge. The UN hopes for just a few days in a tainted village nearby.
Salaam alaikum. Salaam alaikum. Namatanshi, what's your name? How many in your family have been forced to come back to Afghanistan?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:20)
I have seven brothers, my sister-in-law, their children, my children, all of us.

**Lise Doucet** (3:25)
And what about your future? Can you start over again here?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:30)
The problem here is that there are no business or job opportunities in Afghanistan these days. However, I will do whatever work I can find.

**Lise Doucet** (3:40)
Over the past three years, more than six million Afghans have been forced to come home in circumstances like this, either from Pakistan or from Iran on the other border. But forcing people to go home is a violation of international principles. Charlie Goodlake is the spokesperson in Kabul for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNHCR.

**Charlie Goodlake** (4:03)
We haven't seen returns on this level anywhere in the world in recent history. This is almost a medium-sized country that is coming back to Afghanistan and having to reintegrate and to reabsorb.

**Lise Doucet** (4:14)
The Taliban authorities are facing crises of their own. Could they do this, respond to the needs of these people on their own?

**Charlie Goodlake** (4:22)
I do not believe that they can do this alone. I don't think there's many countries in the world that could receive six million people on their own. But let me be also very clear. We're also here to raise challenges with them where we have disagreements. And those are on very clear issues about girls going back to school, about our national staff being able to come back to UN offices.

**Lise Doucet** (4:43)
We're heading now to see someone who was deported twice. He's not just worried about being here. He's terrified. He used to police the streets for the government ousted by the Taliban.
We can't reveal his location, his identity. Tell me what your life is like now.

**SPEAKER_7** (5:04)
I feel that my life is under threat and I can't even go outside. I spent all my day at home.