A number of Afghans deported through the Spin Boldak crossing say that Pakistani prisons have turned into centers of torture for Afghan migrants.
They add that, in addition to torture, Pakistani police forcibly take valuable belongings from the deported individuals.
Raz Mohammad, one of the deportees from Pakistan, said: “They took my phone in prison. When the soldiers saw I had it, they took me to a room and four of them beat me so severely that my chest still hurts. They treated all Afghans the same way.”
Kamran, another deportee, said: “We were thrown into prisons where living conditions amounted to torture. I had to sleep on the ground. There was no food or water, and we weren’t even allowed to pray.”
Rozi Mohammad, a recently deported Afghan who returned via the Spin Boldak crossing, shared his experience: “After being arrested by the Pakistani police, they took my valuables and cash by force. During my detention, I was also tortured.”
Local authorities report that since April 1 of this year, 49,856 Afghan migrants have been forcibly deported through the Spin Boldak crossing.
Mohammad Idris, head of the migrant registration committee at the refugee camp in Takhta Pul district, Kandahar province, said: “Since the beginning of April, 49,856 migrants and 3,650 prisoners have been returned from Pakistan. All these prisoners were poor individuals; some were even deported without clothes.”
According to statistics from the UNHCR, over 178,000 Afghan migrants have been deported from Pakistan in the past one and a half months.