Exodus of Afghans causes major headache for Pakistan's farms and mines

The abrupt departure of thousands of undocumented Afghans has left Bibi Jawzara, an elderly Pakistani woman, "really worried".

For decades, she has relied on Afghan migrants to tend her farm in the south-western province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan. But with Pakistani officials launching an effort to expel some 1.7 million undocumented Afghans in November, the septuagenarian has been struggling to find skilled workers to prune and fertilise apple trees and grapevines on her land.

"The crucial fertiliser time is upon me but I don't have enough workers for this job," she told DW. "As my sons and grandsons live in cities for business and education, Afghan refugees cared for our orchards for years. But now, as they suddenly left for home to avoid deportation, we find ourselves in a real predicament."

Afghans going back after decades in Pakistan

Jawzara used to employ members of five Afghan Pashtun families, who fled their country after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Refugee women used to do chores in her house and men worked in the fields, with the Pakistani woman and two of her sons supervising and helping them.

Even with new generations in the small community born and raised in Pakistan, they tended to live on Jawzara's farmland and be dependent on their employer for food, health care and other needs. But the recent anti-immigrant clampdown has changed everything.

Most undocumented Afghans in Pakistan were living in Balochistan and north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces – both bordering Afghanistan – and never felt residency documents were necessary, with their lives limited to their areas.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani government declared the presence of undocumented migrants to be both a security and economic challenge. Hundreds of thousands have already been expelled or left on their own.

Moreover, despite Pakistani officials pledging that 2.3 million legal Afghan migrants were free to remain as long as their papers are valid, more than a few documented migrants also returned to their home country. They feared that Pakistan would soon try to deport them as well and warned that the authorities look determined to send all Afghans – whether documented or undocumented – home.

Afghan workers, Pakistani employers caught 'off guard'

Afghan labourers have a reputation for being cheap, skilled and hard-working. They are also in a vulnerable position due to the fact that they live on foreign soil. The mass exodus has now sparked labour shortages in sectors like agriculture and mining in Pakistan's border areas.

"Orders for [undocumented] migrants to leave caught our Afghan workers – as well as us – off guard. Neither were they mentally prepared to go away on short notice, nor did we have any idea of what to do without them," said Jahangir Shah, who owns a coal mine in Balochistan's Duki district.

Afghans make up 60 per cent of Shah's employees. The repatriation effort, according to the mine owner, forced him to briefly suspend mining operations. Even after work resumed with extended shifts, production was very slow due to labour shortages. Shah fears production targets will not be met.

"Our bids to return to normal face challenges, especially the unavailability of skilled workers," he told DW, adding that workers from other areas are "not coming in despite offers of better payment."

Trouble for Afghanistan

Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, with millions of them also living in Pakistan. Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, a Pashtun serving as a senator in Pakistan's Balochistan, warns that almost 80 per cent of workers in the mines and farms across the province were Afghan people.

The exodus of Afghans will also stop remittances from Pakistan into Afghanistan, harming the latter's economic development, he said. The war-ravaged country is already facing a massive crisis following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Tareen echoed the concerns of many activists and international organisations, noting that Afghans were given very little time to return to their home country despite spending years or decades on the other side of the border. Speaking with DW, he questioned the Pakistani government narrative that most departures were voluntary.

'Doom scenario' for the local mining industry

Various political parties and trader associations have been protesting government policies since 20 October by staging a sit-in in the border town of Chaman. They have opposed visa restrictions in the wake of the anti-migrant clampdown.

Pir Muhammad Kakar, general secretary of the Balochistan chapter of the Pakistan Workers' Federation, pointed out that more than half of Afghans working in the province's mines had left, causing a "doom scenario" for the local mining industry, the largest income generator for the province.

Kakar said mine owners recently met caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti – himself a Balochistan native – who pledged to ensure that Afghan mine workers aren't unduly bothered. The minister also promised a proper policy to enable the workers to continue their employment, but this promise has yet to be fulfilled, according to Kakar.

Jamila Achakzai

© Deutsche Welle 2023