Interrupted Dreams: Afghan Refugee Students Caught Between Deportation and Education

Afghan refugee students in Pakistan face arrests, detention, deportation, and visa barriers that threaten years of study, sacrifice, and hope.

For many Afghan refugee students in Pakistan, education has represented far more than academic achievement. It has been a pathway to stability, dignity, self-reliance, and a more secure future after years of displacement, uncertainty, and interrupted lives.

Yet in recent months, amid intensified deportation measures and involuntary returns, several Afghan students have seen their educational journeys abruptly disrupted by arrests, detention, deportation, and mounting legal and financial barriers.

Based on interviews with affected students, this Displaced Voices article highlights the experiences of Afghan refugee students whose academic aspirations have been derailed by policies that fail to account for the particular vulnerability of young people close to completing their education.

Their stories reflect not only administrative and legal challenges, but also the emotional and psychological toll of forced displacement on students striving to complete degrees, support their families, and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Students Arrested on the Path to Graduation

One student, Ibrar Ahmad, was in the final stage of his Biochemistry degree at the University of Malakand when his life changed unexpectedly.

“I was born and raised in Pakistan. I completed my matriculation and FSC there and later enrolled in the University of Malakand,” Ahmad explained, describing an educational path built almost entirely within Pakistan’s school and university system.

According to Ahmad, he had traveled to attest his educational documents when he was stopped and arrested during his seventh-semester examinations, despite explaining that he was a student close to graduation and needed only to complete formal documentation.

“I told the police officer that it was my last semester and that I had only come to attest my documents from the foreign office,” he recalled. “But instead of listening, he slapped me.”

Ahmad said he spent a day in jail and a night at the Nasir Bagh deportation center in Peshawar before being deported to Afghanistan, a country where many returnees face serious protection risks, insecurity, and lack of access to basic services, as repeatedly warned by UN human rights officials.

“It was the most awful day of my life. I had never seen a jail before,” he said. “The officer told me to throw my documents in the dustbin. He said, ‘I am not taking you to school, I am taking you to jail.’ Those words still hurt me.”

Now back in Afghanistan, Ahmad fears it may be legally and financially impossible to return to Pakistan and complete his final semester, underscoring how deportation can turn years of study into an unfinished future for refugee youth.

Detention, Uncertainty, and Emotional Distress

Another Afghan student, who requested anonymity for security reasons, shared a similar account of uncertainty and emotional distress during detention, reflecting broader concerns about the treatment of Afghans affected by mass return policies.

A final-semester MS student, he described spending five days in a deportation center under difficult conditions, where detainees had little privacy, limited freedom of movement, and few meaningful ways to communicate with the outside world.

“Around 25 people stayed together in one hall,” he explained. “We spent long hours locked inside with nothing to do except sit and talk. It was mentally stressful and emotionally disturbing.”

He added that detainees had limited access to their phones and could contact their families only briefly, a situation that deepened anxiety for both students and relatives already living under the pressure of displacement and legal uncertainty.

Despite these hardships, he remains hopeful about continuing his education, even as visa delays and uncertainty continue to undermine his ability to plan for the future.

“I had already applied for a study visa months earlier, but I still have not received any response,” he said. “This uncertainty is very challenging.”

He emphasized the need for both national and international actors to support students who are close to completing their education, including through practical visa facilitation, academic continuity measures, and humanitarian support consistent with the right to education.

“Authorities can play an important role by facilitating visa processes for students like us,” he said.

Deportation Barriers and Unfinished Degrees

The experience of Israr Khan, a fourth-semester nursing student, reflects another dimension of vulnerability faced by Afghan refugee students: the sudden collapse of educational continuity under deportation pressure and increasingly restrictive visa conditions.

Khan recalled being arrested while heading to prayer during his mid-term examinations, a moment he described as terrifying and life-altering.

“As soon as I came out of the mosque, the police caught me,” he said. “That moment felt no less than death for me.”

Without access to his mobile phone, Khan’s family remained unaware of his whereabouts for three days, highlighting the human consequences of detention practices that separate families and deepen fear among displaced communities.

“My family did not know whether I was alive or dead,” he said. “I was kept in jail for three days, and we were treated very badly.”

Following his deportation to Afghanistan, Khan attempted to return to Pakistan and continue his nursing studies, but he was unable to secure a visa.

“Student, visit, and even medical visas have become extremely difficult and expensive,” he explained. “Our financial condition is not good.”

Today, Khan says his greatest wish is simply to complete his education and recover a future that displacement and deportation have placed at risk.

“I only wish I could have finished my nursing degree.”

He appealed to educational institutions, humanitarian organizations, and international actors to help Afghan refugee students complete their studies and avoid losing years of hard work to policies that disregard their academic standing.

“I request institutions, organizations, and the international community to find a way for us to complete our education and build our future.”

Protecting Education Amid Forced Returns

The stories of Ahmad, Khan, and other Afghan students reveal the broader humanitarian consequences of forced returns to Afghanistan for refugee youth pursuing higher education.

Many Afghan students in Pakistan were born or raised there, completed their schooling in the country, and built their futures around educational opportunities that now remain uncertain because of deportation, visa barriers, and financial hardship.

While states retain the right to regulate migration and residency, international refugee and human rights standards require that such measures respect human dignity, due process, family unity, and the principle of non-refoulement.

Students nearing graduation represent a particularly vulnerable group whose educational continuity deserves special consideration from governments, universities, UN agencies, and humanitarian partners.

Interruptions in education do not affect only individual students. They can also deepen long-term economic hardship, social exclusion, psychological distress, and renewed displacement, especially for young Afghans who have already endured years of instability and uncertainty.

For many Afghan refugee students, the issue is no longer only about visas or legal documentation. It is about unfinished degrees, interrupted dreams, and the fear that years of study and sacrifice may never reach completion.

Displaced International calls on relevant authorities, academic institutions, UN agencies, and humanitarian partners to work together to protect Afghan refugee students from deportation, facilitate access to study visas and documentation, and ensure that displacement does not permanently extinguish their right to learn, graduate, and build a dignified future.