Millions of Afghans are eager to leave a country on the verge of economic collapse. AFP
Spin Bodak:
Thousands of Afghans trying to escape the misery of their homes have come to their country’s southern border with Pakistan, but their efforts have been halted by the Taliban.
Zakariullah, who sits on a paved road in the trading town of Spin Boldak, a few hundred meters from Pakistan, says he has been turned back more than half a dozen times, sometimes violently.
“They say there are only people in the area with paper,” Zakariullah, a 25-year-old farmer and father of three children, told AFP over the weekend.
“We want to cross the border to work there because there are no jobs here.”
The new Taliban ruler insists that Afghans need to live and rebuild in their conflict-ravaged country.
“They tell people, ‘This is your country. You shouldn’t leave’,” said 25-year-old Rahmadin Vardak.
On the other hand, his Pakistani counterpart in Chaman was also stopping those trying to cross.
“Every day, 8,000 to 9,000 people try to cross the border without the necessary papers, and return,” Taliban border guard Mullah Maulvi Hakyar told AFP.
Maulvi Noor Mohammad Saeed, a Taliban official in Kandahar province, confirmed that the authorities were asking “people and families not to leave the country”.
“By doing this, you lose respect for your Afghan culture,” he told AFP.
sticks and pipes
At the border, only daily wage workers and merchants – all young men wearing traditional flat pakol caps and sweating under the weight of their goods – were allowed to roam a narrow corridor lined with barbed wire leading to the front post.
A second aisle is mostly empty for other passengers, with a few exceptions including elderly men and women seeking immediate health care in Pakistan.
But since Islamists seized power in mid-August and foreign aid money ran out, many Afghans are eager to leave a country on the verge of economic collapse.
Jobs have been lost while farmers are grappling with the effects of drought.
The United Nations has warned that a third of the population faces the threat of famine.
Zakariullah, who had 600 kilometers of farming in Kabul province, said he now hoped to find work in Pakistan. After this he used to send his wife and children to call with him.
But, like many others at the border crossing, Spin Boldak’s trip has sapped his meager savings.
Mohammad Arif said he left his home in Nangarhar in the east because he “had no money, no food” to feed my eight children.
Hundreds of people pleaded with the Taliban for their exit during a visit to AFP over the weekend, after a commotion broke out outside the border office.
Guards wielding sticks and pipes tried to control the frenzied scene as people pushed to sell their possessions – and kept hunger pangs at bay for a few more hours.
None of them made it.
critical condition
Before the Covid pandemic and the recent turmoil, the border was mostly open, with few restrictions for the thousands of people crossing it daily.
But when the Taliban quickly seized Spin Boldak in their flamboyant attack, Pakistan closed the gates and left huge crowds of passengers stranded on either side.
The crossing reopened after the radical group toppled the US-backed government and took power in mid-August.
More Afghans arrived, fearing the Taliban would return to their brutal regime in the 1990s.
“At first, many people could cross,” said Sami ul Haq, who oversees the crossing points for the UN refugee agency UNHCR. “Earlier we used to have 24,000 people a day.”
There were some restrictions on the crossing during the last two weeks of August, but then the Taliban and Pakistanis closed it.
And on Thursday, the Taliban said they were closing the gates completely in protest against Pakistan – which has repeatedly said it will not accept Afghan refugees – on officials with the right papers to create barriers for Afghans. Accused of.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR has not reported heavy movement of people towards the borders.
With the end of the war, some Afghan refugees living in Pakistan have also returned.
But the agency said last month it was preparing a contingency plan for crowds of up to 500,000 in neighboring countries by the end of the year.
Bertrand Blanc, a senior UNHCR emergency official, told AFP in Islamabad: “We need to prepare in the event of a large-scale displacement from any changes within the country.”
“At the moment, we are waiting and see the situation.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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