Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing overwhelmed as Afghans face expulsion

Pakistan’s northwestern border crossing was flooded with thousands of people looking to cross into Afghanistan on Thursday, a day after the government’s deadline expired for undocumented foreigners to leave or face expulsion.
Pakistani authorities had begun rounding up undocumented foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before the deadline. More than a million Afghans could have to leave Pakistan or face arrest and forcible expulsion as a result of the directive that Islamabad delivered abruptly a month ago.
The Pakistan government said Afghans had been involved in militant attacks and crime in the country and has brushed off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider its expulsion plan.
More than 24,000 Afghans crossed into Afghanistan using the Torkham border crossing on Wednesday alone, Deputy Commissioner Khyber Tribal District Abdul Nasir Khan told Reuters.