KARACHI: For nearly 40 years, Baz Mir, a young Afghan who escaped war and uncertainty in his home country, called the dusty outskirts near the southern Pakistani city of Karachi his home, where he built a life from scratch in a temporary settlement for people like him.
As bulldozers closed in on what remained of the Afghan refugee camp, the 48-year-old father of six watched on the walls of his modest house tremble, not just by heavy machinery but also from the emotional weight of a life being dismantled.
Mir, his wife, mother and five children are among 1,384 Afghan nationals who are still awaiting repatriation to Afghanistan from Karachi, according to official documents reviewed by Arab News. Authorities say over 14,000 have already returned to Afghanistan from his area, including one of Mir’s son and his wife.
Since late 2023, Pakistan has gradually repatriated more than 1.5 million Afghans blaming them for a surge in militancy and crime. Human rights groups have criticized the policy as collective punishment, warning it would uproot families with no safety net across the border.
“If I have lived here for 40 years and I see my house being demolished in front of me, of course my heart will break too,” Mir, who came to Pakistan in 1989 as a teenager, told Arab News, standing inside his modest home as authorities brought in heavy machinery to demolish the settlement.
