KABUL: Nearly 60,000 Afghans have been forced to leave Pakistan since the start of April, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday, after Islamabad ramped up a campaign to deport migrants to Afghanistan.
“Between 1 and 13 April 2025, IOM recorded a sharp rise in forced returns, with nearly 60,000 individuals crossing back into Afghanistan through the Torkham and Spin Boldak border points,” the UN agency said in a statement.
“With a new wave of large-scale returns now underway from Pakistan, needs on the ground are rising rapidly — both at the border and in areas of return that are struggling to absorb large numbers of returnees,” said Mihyung Park, head of the agency’s Afghanistan mission.
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country.
Families with their belongings in tow have crowded key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.
The UN says nearly three million Afghans live in Pakistan, many having been there for decades, after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq announced on Tuesday he would attend an upcoming conference on Gaza being hosted this month by Turkiye and would present his country’s stance on Israel’s military aggression. 

Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus has invited his counterparts from Palestine, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, among other nations, to an Apr. 18 meeting of the pro-Palestine Parliamentary Speakers Group in Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Sadiq said he had been invited by the Turkish parliament speaker to attend the conference. 

“So, god willing, I will go there [to the conference] and say the hard truth about Gaza,” he said. “I will present Pakistan’s stance.”

Sadiq said Pakistan is raising the issue of Gaza with foreign delegations that arrive in the country similar to the way it raises the issue of the disputed Kashmir territory. 

“It is very disappointing to see videos from there [Gaza] on what is happening there, the way people are being subjected to injustice,” he said. “It feels painful that maybe Islamic countries were not able to play our role the way we could have played it.”

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in January that lasted eight weeks before Israel resumed the war last month. 

The initial ceasefire agreement was meant to bring the sides toward negotiating an end to the war, something Israel has resisted doing because it wants to defeat Hamas first.

Since the ceasefire fell apart last month, Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza and its forces have also seized swaths of the coastal enclave in a bid to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal more aligned with Israel’s terms.

Hundreds have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed. 

Pakistan’s parliament on Monday passed a unanimous resolution condemning Israel’s “heinous” wave of hostilities in the Palestinian territory, demanding an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.