Over 860,000 Afghans left Pakistan since September 2023

More than 860,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since September 2023, with more than half a million entering Afgha-nistan through border crossings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to a media report. Pakistan launched the second phase to repatriate the Afghan refugees on April 1 after the deadline ended for the voluntary return of the Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC).

Under the phase-wise repatriation of Afghans living in the country, the first phase was started in 2023, when the government announced to send back the Afghans residing illegally in Pakistan.

The Dawn newspaper reported that according to the data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), from Sept 15, 2023, to April 5, 2025, 861,763 Afghans have returned to their country.


Official data shows over half a million exited through two crossings in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, showing that 4,908 Afghan refugees left Pakistan on Friday.

Around 2,475 had ACC and were residing legally in Pakistan. Of them, some 2,125 left the country voluntarily, while 350 were deported through the Torkham border in KP.

Since the beginning of the second phase of repatriation of Afghan nationals on April 1, 16,242 ACC holders have left Pakistan. The data showed that 9,439 left voluntarily, while 6,803 were deported.

Since September 2023, 500,040 Afghan nationals have left Pakistan through the two border crossings in KP.

According to officials, Afghan refugees were also transported from Punjab and Islamabad for deportation. They were moved to two transit camps in Peshawar and Landi Kotal and went through a registration process before being sent back to Afghanistan, reported Dawn.