50 Afghan Children Repatriated Through Torkham on Humanitarian Grounds After Border Trespass
Reports indicate that these children were being exploited by smugglers to transport goods, including cigarettes, toiletries, and drugs, across the border.
Fifty Afghan children, including 17 girls, were repatriated to Afghanistan through the Torkham border on humanitarian grounds after being apprehended for illegally entering Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities sent the children back to Afghanistan via the Torkham border on ‘humanitarian’ grounds late on Sunday evening after the intervention of a tribal jirga.
The children, mostly under the age of 10, had cut through the border fence near the main crossing point under the cover of darkness and lacked legal travel documents.
Local authorities initially intended to charge them under the 14th Foreign Act but relented after a tribal jirga intervened, advocating for their release without legal action due to their minor status.
Reports indicate that these children were being exploited by smugglers to transport goods, including cigarettes, toiletries, and drugs, across the border. They were paid between Rs5,000-6,000 per trip from Afghan handlers and Rs200 to Rs400 from Pakistani handlers.
Farman Shinwari, a former president of the Torkham Labourers and Daily Wagers Association, told Dawn the Afghan border security guards had launched a crackdown on those children after the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The Afghan authorities had arrested a number of them and enrolled them in local schools and seminaries, but a majority of them “slipped away” and rejoined smuggler groups, as most of them belonged to extremely poor families with no or very little sources of earning in Afghanistan.
