The Pakistani government has told Afghan refugees who have congregated in the capital city of Islamabad that it's time to move on and they've given then until March 31 to do it. By giving this directive, Pakistan is attempting to put pressure on the United States, along with other Western countries, to take them in quickly.

Part of Pakistan's concern is that the Taliban, the government says, has been "harboring Pakistani militants who conduct cross-border attacks," The New York Times reports. The Taliban has said that they aren't doing that, but clearly that's not enough of an assurance for neighboring Pakistan. Pakistan has also said that some of those Afghans in their nation are involved in terrorist activities. In December, Pakistan carried out airstrikes along the Pakistan Afghanistan border. A suicide bombing by terrorists stole the lives of at least 25 in Pakistan in November.

A report from Voice of America stated that "escalating terrorist bombings and gun attacks in Pakistan resulted in the deaths of more than 1,600 civilians and security personnel in 2024." They go on to say that "Pakistan asserts that outlawed transnational groups have orchestrated violence from Afghan sanctuaries, with their activities intensifying since the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of the neighboring country."

However, the US has put a pause on taking in refugees, including would-be Afghan immigrants who have already cleared the vetting process that was in place under the Biden administration. Vice President JD Vance has said that he did not believe this vetting process was at all thorough enough to grant these people entry to the US. The pause on refugee admittance is a three-month initial suspension, though it could be longer.

Pakistan is cleaning their hands of the matter, saying that those who do not find a country to take that in, be that the US or elsewhere, will be sent back to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The Taliban took control of the nation after the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from the war-torn country in August 2021. Thirteen US service members died in that withdrawal, which also saw the US leave behind millions of dollars in military equipment.

Since taking over, the Taliban has instituted Islamic extremist laws, such as preventing women from being seen in public, preventing their voices from being heard in public, and even banning them from being seen through the windows of their own homes.

Some 15,000 of those Afghan refugees in Islamabad has applied for resettlement in the US, The New York Times reports, but the US pause on refugee programs has cast doubt on whether or not they would actually be able to gain entry to the US. Many of these refugees worked with the US while the US was staging military operations in Afghanistan or are family members of those who did.

The UN Human Rights Commission, from which the US withdrew during the first few weeks of the Trump administration, has said that these refugees could be in danger upon returning home where they could face Taliban retaliation. The UNHRC specifically mentions women, girls, journalists, human rights activists, and artists. The Taliban doesn't have much appreciation for art.

The UNHRC has asked Pakistan to take the safety of these refugees under consideration before forcing them to move on. The Times reports that "A spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Shafqat Ali Khan, recently said that nearly 80,000 Afghan refugees had left Pakistan for other countries, and that about 40,000 who had applied for resettlement elsewhere were still in Pakistan."