Authorities have ordered Afghan refugees to leave Tajikistan

Against the backdrop of ongoing deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan, the authorities of Tajikistan have also begun detaining and expelling Afghans.

According to media reports, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Security Committee in Tajikistan have started detaining and forcibly expelling Afghan refugees from Tajikistan.

Officially, the authorities of Tajikistan have not yet commented on the mass deportation of Afghans, but dozens of refugees have already told journalists that they were given 15 days to leave the country.

Earlier, the German news agency Deutsche Welle reported that the authorities of Tajikistan had begun conducting searches in the homes of Afghan refugees, detaining and deporting them six months ago.

However, the head of the Afghan Refugees Committee in Dushanbe, Musavvir Bahoduri, previously called the information about the forced deportation of Afghan citizens from Tajikistan unfounded, stating that “none of the refugees have approached the Committee” regarding this issue.

At the same time, the news agency Afghanistan International recently refuted this statement in its report, claiming that employees of the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan and the Afghan Refugees Committee in Dushanbe are keeping silent about what is happening out of fear of damaging relations with the Tajik authorities.

According to some refugees, previously Tajik law enforcement officers would release detained Afghans for money, but in recent days, as deportations have intensified, money and bribes no longer help or solve the problem.

There are also reports that Tajik law enforcement officers detain dozens of Afghan refugees daily, especially men, and send them back to Afghanistan without informing their relatives in advance.

The actions of the Tajik authorities are causing serious concern among Afghan refugees, as many of them previously worked in the government of the overthrown Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and fear that upon returning home they may be persecuted or imprisoned.

It should be noted that currently about 13,000 Afghan refugees officially reside in the city of Vahdat and the Rudaki district near Dushanbe. Most of them are awaiting visas for resettlement to Canada.

Until recently, Emomali Rahmon and other representatives of the Tajik authorities openly and sharply criticized the Taliban movement on international platforms, expressing support for its opponents. However, in recent times, the rhetoric of the Tajik authorities has changed, their tone has softened, and relations with the Taliban have noticeably improved.

For this reason, even those Afghan citizens who officially work, live, and do business in Tajikistan fear that they could be detained and deported at any moment.

Tajikistan has officially accepted Afghan refugees for over two decades. During this time, their numbers have constantly fluctuated. However, in the last four years, after the Taliban returned to power, thousands of refugees have once again arrived in the country, many of whom subsequently moved on to third countries.