‘The number of Afghans fleeing overland to Pakistan is on the rise’

Several media outlets have reported that the number of Afghans trying to flee to neighboring Pakistan has increased significantly in recent days. An official at the border crossing in the southern city of Spin Boldak told the DPA news agency that about 10,000 Afghans cross the border every day. Usually about 4,000 Afghans cross the border there every day.

In Britain’s Guardian newspaper, a local Pakistani health official spoke of an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees from Afghanistan. Especially after Thursday, when several Western countries halted the evacuation and Kabul airport came under attack, he said, the number of refugees increased rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are said to have crossed the border between Spin Boldak (Afghanistan) and Chaman (Pakistan) in recent days.

Three dead

This crossing is considered one of the most important border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other is the border crossing at Torkham, 180 kilometers from Kabul. But it is currently open: only Pakistanis are allowed to cross the border.

Yesterday, three Afghans were killed at Torkham border crossing when Pakistani border guards opened fire on a group of refugees. Several Afghans were wounded.

no flow

A spokesman for Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which includes the shaman, denied in the Guardian that a massive refugee influx had begun in the region. “There may have been a few individual cases, but there was no flow,” he says. We will not allow Afghan refugees.” The spokesman said that Afghans who were accepted are being received in refugee camps.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says there does not appear to be a large influx so far. The organization fears that half a million Afghans will flee the country in the near future. This comes in addition to the 2.2 million Afghans currently registered as refugees abroad, according to the organization. Most of them reside in Pakistan and Iran.