Published: 09:04 AM, 09 July 2025
Pakistan authorities intensify raids to deport Afghan refugees
Shakoofa Khalili was waiting for her husband to return home with bread from the market when she heard their eight-year-old daughter scream from the balcony, reports CNN.
The girl had seen police approach her father in the street outside their safe house in Pakistan's capital Islamabad and ran to confront them.
"(She) cried and grabbed the policeman's hand begging him to let her father go," Khalili told CNN, as she recounted what she thought was her worst fears coming true.
When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled across the border to neighboring Pakistan, seeking safety away from the radical Islamist group.
Afghan nationals who had worked with the United States or NATO forces were particularly fearful of reprisals from the Taliban. Promised resettlement in the US, many traveled to Pakistan to await American visas. Khalili and her family were among them.
Now they fear they'll be deported back to Afghanistan, following US President Donald Trump's order to suspend the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), effectively locking out refugees worldwide who had been on a pathway to US resettlement.
Soon after the executive order was signed, Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office drafted a three-stage repatriation plan for "Afghan nationals bound for 3rd country resettlement."
The document, seen by CNN, calls for foreign missions to coordinate the relocation of Afghan nationals out of the capital Islamabad and its twin garrison city of Rawalpindi by March 31, 2025.
If they're not removed by that date, they will be "repatriated to Afghanistan."
While living in Afghanistan, Khalili worked on a child abuse protection program funded by the US Embassy. She hoped to gain a US visa but ended up trapped in Pakistan, with few options to leave.
"For us, who worked alongside the United States, returning to Afghanistan is not just a risk - it is a death sentence," Khalili told CNN.
This time, her daughter's pleas to police worked, but although the father and child made it back to the safehouse they call home, Khalili's daughter was deeply affected by what took place.
