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Paper short abstract

After the 2021 Taliban takeover, many Afghans migrated to Pakistan. Desiring resettlement, they protested hoping to gain international attention. They later protested against deportations. UNHCR and other INGOs, responding to urgent calls, prioritised cases, raising practical and ethical questions.

Paper long abstract

In August 2021 the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan left many in a situation of panic and fear. Over 600,000 Afghans made their way to Pakistan within the first months, hoping to be evacuated or resettled to third countries. With the onset of war in Ukraine, many of them felt stuck, neglected and ignored by the ‘international community’. Thus, they staged a sit-in protest in the federal capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, in April 2022. They attempted to highlight the need of an urgent action – through their slogans ‘Kill Us’ and ’Save Us’ – for their safety, security and better future. However, continuing for over five months, the protest did not yield any immediate results in the favour of the Afghans.

In 2023, Pakistan announced a deportation program, which led to another state of urgency in a crisis that was otherwise mostly treated as non-urgent. The panic created in response led to mass return migrations, with more than 375,000 Afghans forced to leave Pakistan in merely two months. The situation worsened in 2025, with some Afghans again resorting to protesting, against the deportations.

Though UNHCR had resumed its resettlement program for the Afghans, in 2022, only a few thousand could be referred for that. Similarly, some organisations also came to selectively support these refugees for relocation. In such a situation, two questions arise; Practical: ‘what cases to be prioritised for an urgent response?’, Ethical: ‘should the life experiences of the migrants be viewed in comparison, to assess a need of action?’