Afghanistan’s Other Refugee Crisis
More than three decades ago, Sharbat Gula’s piercing green eyes and haunted expression appeared on the cover of National Geographic. The 12-year-old girl became a powerful symbol of the plight of Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan during the Soviet war. Now she is the face of a new group of Afghan refugees—those being forced back across the border.
On November 9, Gula, 44, was deported to Afghanistan with her four children, having been arrested in Peshawar for carrying a fake Pakistani identity card. To many in Kabul, her case is evidence of a wider crackdown. Since July, more than of harassment and intimidation have fed suspicions that Pakistan is coercing whole communities of long-term refugees to leave in what could constitute the biggest forced migration anywhere in the world.
