MIGRATION DIPLOMACY AND REFUGEE DYNAMICS: THE AFGHAN INFLUX AND ITS IMPACT ON PAKISTAN’S FOREIGN POLICY AND BORDER SECURITY

Abstract

This article discusses the Afghan influx in Pakistani in the context of migration diplomacy and contends that, the issue of Afghan displacement has never been a humanitarian issue in Pakistan. Instead, it has served as a domestic governance problem, a regional security problem and a tool of diplomacy. The article introduces the notion of migration diplomacy and demonstrates how states utilize admission, regulation, documentation, and return of migrants and refugees to achieve more political ends. It then follows the history of the Afghan influx since the initial mass immigration following 1979 to the more recent policy reversals and return pressures following 2023 and 2025 in particular. It is concluded in the analysis that the policy of Pakistan on refugees has become less long-term strategic hospitality and managed ambiguity and more of securitized selectivity, coercive repatriation, and tightened border control. This change has impacted on the relationships of Pakistan with Afghanistan, the United Nations system, Western donors and other regional players like China. The article further states that militancy has been rhetorically conflated with the refugee problem although the greatest cross border security threat facing Pakistan is the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other armed groups based in Afghanistan and not the refugee communities as an entity. To have a lasting policy, protection must be separated out of policing, ad hoc documentation must be replaced with a consistent legal framework, and border security must be part of a wider regional approach of burden-sharing, controlled movement, and counterterrorism collaboration.