Undocumented Afghan repatriation accelerates

KHYBER: The return of Afghan families, most of them undocumented, has gathered pace after improvements were made to the verification process at the Hamza Baba Transit Centre in Landi Kotal, according to officials and sources familiar with operations at the facility.

Officials at the centre said about 4,000 Afghan nationals were being verified there each day before being sent back through the Torkham border crossing. To reduce congestion and curb irregularities, the administration has directed Afghans to appear individually for clearance, while vehicles carrying their belongings are allowed to move separately after completing customs and security checks.

An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the centre was working in coordination with authorities in Peshawar and other cities before allowing vehicles to proceed onward.

“We work in close coordination with authorities in Peshawar and other cities and allow vehicles to proceed to Torkham border point only after clearance by traffic wardens on the Peshawar-Torkham Highway and by Nadra staff at the transit centre,” the official said.

According to the same official, the centre clears between 800 and 1,000 adult Afghans each day, including both men and women, with each adult accompanied on average by five minors. The official added that the verification and clearance procedure usually takes around 15 minutes if documents are in order, while children below the age of 12 are exempt from the process.

Officials said people carrying suspicious or forged documents were subjected to more extensive questioning, with Nadra staff checking their credentials in detail. They said other family members, especially parents of individuals without any papers, were also approached before a decision was made on their case.

According to officials, an organised network of human traffickers was involved in moving local women to Afghanistan for prostitution by fraudulently presenting them as Afghan nationals. They said several women and their alleged handlers had been identified and detained after they were unable to establish Afghan nationality during the verification stage.

Officials also said that many of those returning were born in Pakistan, had never been to Afghanistan and did not possess legal documentation. They said most of them were under 30 years of age and came from poor households, making them reluctant to leave because of uncertainty about their future and limited resources.

The officials claimed that around 200,000 Afghan nationals had been repatriated since the Torkham border reopened on March 31.