Afghans fleeing Pakistan lack shelter, food and warmth once they cross the border

(6 Nov 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Torkham border, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan - 4 November 2023
1. Truck carrying Afghan families deported from Pakistan arriving to makeshift camp at Torkham border on Afghan side
2. Children on the truck
3. Various of people at the camp
4. Mid of Khayal Mohammad and his family
5. Various of Mohammad making and drinking tea
6. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Khayal Mohammad, displaced person:
"We request from the international community, we cannot ask the Taliban government, they have nothing because they are yet to be recognised as a government, we request from the international community to pay attention to our situation and help us with a home and a shelter. There are families who have nothing here, no land, no home, they are just living under the open sky, no one is helping them. We need help."
7. Close of Mohammad's daughter Hawa Mohammad drinking tea
8. Various of Hawa Mohammad crying
9. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Hawa Mohammad, Khayal's daughter:
"I am crying because I am cold. Last night was very cold and we didn't have anything to sleep with, no mattress, no blanket, nothing, no pillows, we have nothing. This is what I drank tea with for breakfast, and this all we live with now."
10. Various of deported families in makeshift camp
11. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Wahida Mohammad, Khayal’s wife:
"We have been here for the last five nights, and there is no one to help us. We have already spent the little we had, my children are sick from the cold, we don’t know what to do."
12. Various of deported Afghans in makeshift camp
13. Wide of camp
STORYLINE:
Afghans fleeing Pakistan to avoid arrest and deportation are sleeping in the open, without proper shelter, food, drinking water and toilets once they cross the border to their homeland, aid agencies said Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have left Pakistan in recent weeks as authorities pursue foreigners they say are in the country illegally, going door-to-door to check migrants’ documentation.

Pakistan set Oct. 31 as a deadline to leave the country or else they'd be arrested as part of a new anti-migrant crackdown.

Afghans leave Pakistan via two main border crossings, Torkham and Chaman.

The Taliban have set up camps on the other side for people to stay in while they wait to be moved to their place of origin in Afghanistan.

Kayal Mohammad lived in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar for 17 years.

He has five children and was deported to the Afghan border almost a week ago.

He told The Associated Press he wasn’t allowed to take any household belongings with him.

Everything he and his family own remains in Pakistan.

His seven-year-old daughter, Hawa, weeps because she is cold.

She drinks tea for breakfast from a cut-up plastic bottle and sleeps without a blanket.

"I am crying because I am cold. Last night was very cold and we didn't have anything to sleep with, no mattress, no blanket, nothing," said Hawa.

Her father urged the international community for help.

Aid agencies said Torkham has no proper shelter.

There is limited access to drinking water, no heating source other than open fires, no lighting, and no toilets.

U.N. agencies and aid groups are setting up facilities with thousands of people entering Afghanistan every day.

The Taliban say they have committees working “around the clock” to help Afghans by distributing food, water and blankets.

Afghanistan is overwhelmed by challenges, compounded by the isolation of the Taliban-led government by the international community.



AP video shot by Sidiqqullah Alizai.



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