By Nusrat Zufash Tarakhail
For more than four decades, millions of Afghan refugees have lived in Pakistan after fleeing war, conflict, political instability, and insecurity in Afghanistan. Many families arrived during the 1980s, and over the years they built stable and productive lives within Pakistani society. Today, a large number of Afghan refugees are third-generation residents who were born, raised, and educated in Pakistan. Pakistan is the only country they have ever known. They attended Pakistani schools, colleges, and universities, established businesses, purchased properties, secured employment, and became integrated into the country’s social, cultural, and economic fabric. Thousands of Afghan families have also established close family ties through marriages between Afghan and Pakistani nationals, creating communities that have lived together peacefully for decades. For many of these families, Pakistan is not simply a place of refuge but their home, where they developed their identities, aspirations, and hopes for the future.
The recent forced deportation of these refugees has therefore created consequences that extend far beyond physical displacement. It has resulted in the sudden loss of security, stability, identity, community, education, employment, property, and social belonging. Individuals who spent decades building their lives now face the painful reality of leaving behind everything they worked for without adequate preparation or certainty about their future. Such experiences place individuals and families under enormous psychological pressure. The emotional impact of losing one’s home, livelihood, social support network, and future plans simultaneously creates a level of distress that can overwhelm even the most resilient individuals. Many deported refugees experience persistent anxiety, fear, sadness, emotional exhaustion, hopelessness, sleep disturbances, and symptoms commonly associated with traumatic stress. Parents carry the additional burden of worrying about the survival and future of their children while trying to cope with their own emotional suffering.
Among those most severely affected are Afghan women and female students whose education was continuing in Pakistan. Thousands of girls have spent years pursuing their education with dreams of having professional identites. For many of them, forced deportation represents the sudden loss of educational opportunities and the future they had worked so hard to achieve. Under the current policies in Afghanistan, access to secondary and higher education for girls remains heavily restricted, creating deep uncertainty regarding their academic and professional futures. The interruption of education is not simply the loss of classroom learning; it is the loss of identity, independence, confidence, purpose, and hope. Many young women experience profound grief, frustration, helplessness, and despair as they realize that years of hard work may no longer lead to the opportunities they once expected. This psychological burden significantly increases their vulnerability to depression, anxiety disorders, prolonged grief, social withdrawal, and feelings of worthlessness.
For many deported families, Afghanistan is a country they are seeing for the very first time. Although they possess Afghan nationality, countless individuals have never lived there and have little or no connection with local communities. Many have no relatives, no homes, no social support networks, and no knowledge of how the country’s systems function. A considerable number of young people communicate more comfortably in Urdu than in Dari or Pashto, making even basic communication difficult in some areas. They are unfamiliar with local administrative procedures, healthcare services, employment opportunities, educational institutions, and everyday life. Returning to what is legally their homeland often feels like entering a completely foreign environment where they must rebuild their lives from nothing. This unfamiliarity creates intense feelings of isolation, loneliness, fear, confusion, and insecurity while weakening their sense of identity and belonging.
The psychological burden is further intensified by the difficult humanitarian conditions that many deported families encounter after arrival. Afghanistan continues to face significant economic challenges, limited employment opportunities, constraints in healthcare delivery, and ongoing humanitarian needs. Families arriving after decades in Pakistan often struggle to secure housing, income, education, and access to essential services. Many find themselves without a clear roadmap for rebuilding their lives. The uncertainty surrounding their future contributes to chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and a growing sense of hopelessness. When individuals cannot identify realistic opportunities to improve their circumstances, they become increasingly vulnerable to depression and other mental health conditions that directly affect their overall well-being and ability to function.
The economic losses experienced by many Afghan refugee families further compound their psychological distress. Thousands spent decades building businesses, operating shops, working in transport, agriculture, construction, restaurants, manufacturing, and numerous other sectors that contributed to Pakistan’s economy. Many invested their life savings in businesses, homes, and personal assets. Forced deportation has resulted in many families losing access to these investments, their livelihoods, and financial security almost overnight. The inability to provide for one’s family often produces feelings of guilt, shame, helplessness, frustration, and constant anxiety. Financial hardship and psychological distress reinforce one another, creating a cycle that affects parents, children, and the stability of entire families.
An equally vulnerable group consists of Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan following the fall of the previous Afghan government in 2021. Many of these individuals include former government employees, journalists, civil society members, human rights defenders, women leaders, and others who left Afghanistan because of serious security concerns. Many are currently awaiting resettlement to third countries through ongoing immigration programmes. While these resettlement cases remain under process, some families now face deportation back to Afghanistan before their cases are completed. This uncertainty creates overwhelming psychological distress as individuals fear returning to circumstances they previously escaped while simultaneously worrying that years of waiting for international protection may be lost. Living in prolonged uncertainty without control over one’s future places individuals at increased risk of severe anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, and hopelessness.
At the same time, Afghan refugees who remain in Pakistan continue to experience serious psychological challenges. Many are living with expired Proof of Registration (PoR) cards or expired visas that cannot be renewed, leaving them in a constant state of fear regarding arrest or deportation. Families often restrict their movements, avoid public places, and hesitate to seek healthcare, education, or other essential services because of concerns about their legal status. Living under continuous fear and uncertainty produces chronic psychological stress that affects emotional well-being, physical health, family relationships, children’s development, and overall quality of life. Many individuals describe living in a constant state of anxiety, unable to plan for tomorrow while fearing separation from their families at any moment.
The cumulative effect of repeated displacement, prolonged uncertainty, forced deportation, economic loss, interrupted education, family separation, and social isolation creates an extremely high psychosocial burden. These experiences are not isolated events but multiple traumatic stressors occurring simultaneously. Without timely mental health intervention, the psychological consequences may continue for many years, affecting individuals, families, and entire communities. Children exposed to prolonged stress may develop emotional and behavioural difficulties that influence their learning, relationships, and future development. Parents struggling with their own psychological distress often find it more difficult to provide emotional support and stability for their children, increasing the vulnerability of future generations.
Mental health is therefore not a secondary concern but a fundamental humanitarian priority within the current Afghan refugee crisis. Humanitarian assistance should extend beyond the provision of food, shelter, transportation, and medical care to include comprehensive Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services. Psychological First Aid, individual and family counselling, trauma-informed care, psychosocial support groups, child protection services, women’s mental health programmes, community-based interventions, and referral pathways for specialised psychiatric care should become integral components of the humanitarian response both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Special attention should be given to women, adolescent girls, children, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, survivors of trauma, and families awaiting third-country resettlement, as these groups face particularly high psychosocial risks.
The current situation demands a coordinated country-level Mental Health and Psychosocial Support response supported by the international humanitarian community. Organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, international donors, humanitarian agencies, and national authorities should work together to strengthen accessible mental health services across both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Expanding community-based mental health programmes, training frontline humanitarian workers, integrating mental health into primary healthcare, and ensuring continuity of psychological support before, during, and after deportation are essential to reducing suffering and promoting long-term recovery.
The forced deportation of Afghan refugees should not be viewed solely as an immigration or border management issue. It is a profound humanitarian and psychological crisis affecting millions of people whose lives have already been shaped by decades of conflict, displacement, and uncertainty. For many, deportation represents the loss of home, identity, education, livelihoods, security, and hope for the future. Protecting the mental health of affected Afghan refugees is therefore not only a humanitarian responsibility but also an essential investment in preserving human dignity, strengthening resilience, and enabling individuals and families to rebuild their lives with hope and purpose despite the immense challenges they face. Immediate investment in comprehensive, culturally appropriate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support services is essential to prevent long-term psychological harm and to support the recovery and well-being of one of the world’s most vulnerable displaced populations.
