Pakistan’s prime minister on Wednesday sought to reassure thousands of Afghans waiting in Pakistan for resettlement in the United States that they won’t be deported as part of his government’s widely criticized crackdown on undocumented migrants in the country.

Since the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban control in August 2021, Taliban leadership has systematically oppressed and erased Afghan women and girls, resulting in the loss of their most basic human rights.

The Pakistani government has announced that undocumented Afghans awaiting paperwork to resettle to a third country will be allowed to stay in Pakistan for two more months.

For a year after the fall of Kabul and the swift withdrawal of international allies from Afghanistan, Jawed* and his family were in hiding, evading the ruling Taliban as they counted the days waiting for relocation promises from the British government to be realised.

Abdullah was a well-known public figure in Afghanistan, a journalist and university lecturer respected by his readers and students.