ISLAMABAD – A leading rights group said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s authorities have intensified pressure on Afghan refugees to go back to neighboring Afghanistan, where they risk persecution by the Taliban and face dire economic conditions.

“Pakistani officials should immediately stop coercing Afghans to return home and give those facing expulsion the opportunity to seek protection,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should prevent any reprisals against returning Afghans and reverse their abusive policies against women and girls,” she said.

Pakistan set a March 31 deadline for the deportation of all foreigners living illegally in the country. Most of them are Afghans.

The HRW appeal came a month after the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said that Pakistan has stepped up arrests of Afghan citizens in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi for forced expulsion.

However, Pakistan has dismissed the allegation by Kabul, saying that the authorities were only trying to facilitate conditions for the swift return of Afghans to their home country.

More than 500,000 Afghans who fled the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 have been living without papers in Pakistan, thousands of them waiting for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere.

There are also around 1.45 million Afghan refugees, registered with the U.N. refugee agency, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country. Last July, Pakistan extended the stay of refugees registered with UNHCR until June, saying they won’t be arrested or deported at least until the extension expires.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump paused American refugee programs for at least three months and since then, around 20,000 Afghans who were awaiting resettlement in Pakistan are now in limbo. Afghans waiting for relocation to the United States have also urged Trump to restore the refugee program to end their ordeal.

HRW said in a statement that the human rights situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

“Women and girls are banned from post primary education and denied a broad range of rights and freedoms. Human rights defenders, journalists, and former government personnel are at particular risk,” the group said.

The statement also said that Afghans returning to their country struggle to survive amid Afghanistan’s soaring unemployment rate, broken health care system and dwindling foreign assistance.

Earlier this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also approved the March 31 deadline for the deportation of those Afghans awaiting relocation to third countries unless their cases are swiftly processed by the governments that have agreed to take them.

“Afghanistan is not safe for any forced refugee returns,” Pearson said, “Countries that pledged to resettle at-risk Afghans should respond to the urgency of the situation in Pakistan and expedite those cases.”

HRW said that Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has also announced that Afghans without official residence documents, along with holders of Afghan Citizen Cards, must leave the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi or face deportation.

“Afghans holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards must leave by June 30,” it said.

More than 800,000 Afghans have returned home or have been expelled by force from Pakistan since 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency that tracks migration.

More than 70% of those returning to Afghanistan have been women and children, including girls of secondary school age and women who will no longer have access to education, according to HRW.

The group said that “Pakistani police have raided houses, beat and arbitrarily detained people, and confiscated refugee documents, including residence permits. They have demanded bribes to allow Afghans to remain in Pakistan.”