It's almost funny that European countries have such a hard time deporting Muslims to Muslim countries while Pakistan has deported more than 100,000 Afghans in less than a month. Something colossally stupid is happening in Europe, and nothing good will come from it.
More than 100,000 Afghans left Pakistan in April,
amid eviction campaign
Since April 1, more than 100,000 Afghans have been sent back to their country of origin, according to the Pakistani interior ministry, out of the some three million the United Nations says are living in Pakistan. The figure comes after Islamabad ramped up pressure on Afghans to return to their country of origin.
Pushed out of Pakistan where she was born, Nazmine Khan's first experience of her country, Afghanistan, was in a sweltering tent at a border camp.
"We never thought we would return to Afghanistan," said the 15-year-old girl, who has little idea of what will become of her or her family, only that she is likely to have fewer freedoms.
"When our parents told us we had to leave, we cried," added Khan.
Islamabad, accusing Afghans of links to narcotics and "supporting terrorism", announced a new campaign in March to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghans, with or without documents.
Many had lived in Pakistan for decades after fleeing successive wars and crises but did not wait to be arrested by Pakistani forces before leaving, seeing their removal as inevitable.
Since April 1, more than 100,000 Afghans have been sent back to their country of origin, according to Islamabad, out of the some three million the United Nations says are living in Pakistan.
From Paris, Begum TV offers Afghan women ‘window onto the world’
The interior ministry said "100,529 Afghans have left in April", a figure that comes after Islamabad ramped up pressure on Afghans to return to their country of origin.
Khan's family fled Afghanistan in the 1960s. Her four brothers and sister were also born in Pakistan.
"In a few days we'll look for a place to rent" in the border province of Nangarhar where the family has roots, she told AFP, speaking in Pakistan's commonly spoken tongue of Urdu, not knowing any Afghan languages.
In the family's tent there is little more than a cloth to lie on and a few cushions, but no mattress or blanket. Flies buzz under the tarpaulin as countless children in ragged clothes come and go.
'Already suffering'
When it comes to her own future, Khan feels "completely lost", she said.
Having dropped out of school in Pakistan, the Taliban authorities' ban on girls studying beyond primary school will hardly change the course of her life.
But from what little she heard about her country while living in eastern Pakistan's Punjab, she knows that "here there are not the same freedoms".
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban authorities have imposed restrictions on women characterised by the UN as "gender apartheid".
Women have been banned from universities, parks, gyms and beauty salons and squeezed from many jobs.
"It is now a new life ... for them, and they are starting this with very little utilities, belongings, cash, support," said Ibrahim Humadi, programme lead for non-governmental group Islamic Relief, which has set up about 200 tents for returnees in the Omari camp.
Pakistan plans to expel 3 million Afghans from the country
Some stay longer than the three days offered on arrival, not knowing where to go with their meagre savings, he said.
"They also know that even in their area of return, the community will be welcoming them, will be supporting them ... but they know also the community are already suffering from the situation in Afghanistan," he added.
Around 85 percent of the Afghan population lives on less than one dollar a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
"We had never seen (Afghanistan) in our lives. We do not know if we can find work, so we are worried," said Jalil Khan Mohamedin, 28, as he piled belongings – quilts, bed frames and fans – into a truck that will take the 16 members of his family to the capital Kabul, though nothing awaits them there.
'Still don't understand'
The Taliban authorities have said they are preparing towns specifically for returnees.
But at one site near Torkham, there is nothing more than cleared roads on a rocky plain.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) believes "greater clarity" is needed to ensure that the sites intended for returnees are "viable" in terms of basic infrastructure and services such as health and education.
It's important that "returnees are making informed decisions and that their relocation to the townships is voluntary", communications officer Avand Azeez Agha told AFP.
Looking dazed, Khan's brother Dilawar still struggles to accept leaving Pakistan, where he was born 25 years ago.
His Pakistani wife did not want to follow him and asked for a divorce.
"When we crossed the border, we felt like going back, then after a day it felt fine," said the former truck driver.
"We still don't understand. We were only working."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Bangladesh: Muslim leader says ‘We will implement sharia. We demand death sentences for speaking against Allah.’
A glimpse into the future of the West.
Bangladesh’s influential Islamists promise sharia as they ready for polls
by Sheikh Sabiha Alam, AFP, May 2, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Bangladesh’s Islamists are readying to make political gains after being crushed for years by the government that was overthrown in a mass uprising last year, rallying hardline loyalists for eagerly anticipated elections.
“We are pretty confident about entering the parliament in the next election,” Muhammad Mamunul Haque, joint secretary of Hefazat-e-Islam, an influential coalition of Islamic schools, told AFP in an interview.
The coalition will hold a mass rally in the capital Dhaka on Saturday in what is expected to be one of their biggest public shows of strength for years as religiously fuelled activism gains popularity.
Haque, 52, said the group will push to implement sharia, or Islamic law, and believes the group’s network of tens of thousands of seminaries — claiming to have some 500,000 members — means they will do well if the vote “is free and fair”.
Hefazat-e-Islam is an alliance of different parties and Muslim organisations, including Haque’s Khilafat-e-Majlish party.
A hugely influential pressure group, it has been courted by political parties since it was founded 15 years ago….
Muslim-majority Bangladesh has a constitution based on the four pillars of nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism.
However, Haque said his supporters wanted Islamic law.
“We will implement sharia,” Haque said, insisting all would be treated fairly.
“Everything will be guided by the Koran… under an Islamic welfare state, all, regardless of their faith, will be treated justly.”
That would include capital punishment for blasphemy against Islam.
“We demand death sentences for speaking against Allah, tarnishing the image of the Prophet, and offending Muslims,” Haque said.
“There is no room for negotiation in this regard.”
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