'I will kill myself if I'm deported' - Afghan living in Pakistan reacts to planned deportations

Benazir Raufi now stands alone in her once-bustling restaurant in Rawalpindi. Her staff have vanished, and the usual flow of customers has dried up—paralysed by fear after Pakistan's government announced the cancellation of residence permits for hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals.

Earlier in March, Islamabad declared that 800,000 Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) would be invalidated, marking the second phase of a sweeping deportation drive. The first phase had already pushed an estimated 800,000 undocumented Afghans back across the border.

"If I'm deported, it will destroy me. Either my heart will stop, or I'll take my own life," said 45-year-old Raufi, who fled civil war in Afghanistan as a teenager in the 1990s. "Pakistan gave us our smile, and now those smiles are being taken away."

The raid on her restaurant by police was a turning point. Since then, the ten Afghan women she employed have stayed home, afraid of being rounded up and sent back to a country where women's freedoms have been stripped away under Taliban rule—including bans on education, many jobs, and even visiting public spaces like parks.

"I have no one to return to. The Taliban won't accept us," Raufi said, her voice breaking with emotion.