Truck owners in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday sought the immediate return of over 2,000 vehicles stranded in Afghanistan for the past month after transporting Afghan nationals back to their homeland.
KP Mini Mazda Truck Owners Association President Latif Gul voiced concern over the ongoing snarl, noting the delays had left hundreds of Pakistani drivers and conductors stuck across the border in difficult conditions. He told media Afghan authorities were not permitting their vehicles to return.
“Our drivers have been away from their homes for a month, while truck owners have already exhausted their earnings in meeting daily expenses,” he said, noting delays in border crossing had already increased operational costs, raising fares for Afghanistan-bound vehicles.
Gul warned that if these conditions persisted, truck owners and drivers would no longer be willing to transport any more passengers to Afghanistan. He further warned that his association would have no choice but to block Ring Road in Peshawar and halt the movement of all containers bound for Afghanistan if the situation is not resolved.
He urged the governments in both Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure the immediate repatriation of stranded vehicles and drivers.
In 2023, Pakistan launched a crackdown to evict Afghan refugees who have been residing in the country illegally. Over the past two years, more than a million Afghans registered as refugees have either returned voluntarily or been deported. The matter has attracted criticism from rights activists, who say many younger Afghans were born in Pakistan and have no ties to the country they are “returning” to.