US plans to deport nearly 200 Afghans through Pakistan by charter flight, Taliban voice 'serious concern'

The United States plans to deport nearly 200 Afghans by flying them to Pakistan and then sending them overland into Afghanistan, a US official told CBS News. Afghanistan's Taliban government said on Monday it had "serious concern" about the plan. Pakistan's Foreign Office has not yet commented.

The plan, as reported

• Who: Afghan nationals held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), accused of breaking US immigration law. CBS put the number at nearly 200; Dawn, citing US media and an advocacy group, said more than 150.
• Route: A charter flight to Pakistan, followed by transfer by land to the Afghan border. Detainees were told they would fly to Pakistan on Tuesday 3 November, according to a lawyer for two of them, but were not told who would drive them or how.
• Why Pakistan: The US closed its Kabul embassy in 2021 and has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban, which makes direct removal flights to Afghanistan difficult.
• Status: The official said the plans are still in flux and the date is unclear.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss the flights, citing operational security. A spokesperson said people sent to a third country "receive notice and assurances prior to their removal", but did not say whether Pakistan had given any assurances, or whether they cover the road journey. The Pakistani embassy in Washington did not respond to CBS.

Kabul's response

Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the "Islamic Emirate" expressed its serious concern at reports that the US would send Afghans without legal residency papers to Pakistan, Dawn reported. The ministry told CBS that third countries "should not bargain over the transfer of another country's nationals".

Some of those named for removal are relatives of Afghans who helped US forces before the 2021 withdrawal. Advocacy groups say returning them could put them at risk. The founder of the #AfghanEvac group, Shawn VanDiver, called the plan "abandonment with a boarding pass". As of Monday, 66 members of Congress had written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking them to cancel deportation flights of Afghans and Iranians.

Why it matters here

The plan lands while Pakistan is running its own repatriation of Afghans without valid documents: by September, Punjab alone had sent back 142,820 people and the national total had passed 2.76 million, according to official figures we reported then.

Key questions for Islamabad are whether it has agreed to receive the flight, who would escort deportees from the airport to the border, and which crossing (Torkham or Chaman) would be used. We will update this page when the Foreign Office or the US government confirms the arrangements.

For Pakistanis travelling to or living in the US, nothing in this plan changes visa or travel rules. Fees for your own documents are on our passport fee calculator.