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The singer without a stage: An Afghan artist leaves the country that raised him

November 12, 2025

Najeebullah Khitab, an Afghan singer born and raised in Pakistan over 46 years, faces deportation as part of Pakistan's large-scale repatriation program that began in 2023, affecting approximately 2. 8 million Afghan refugees. Despite spending his entire life in Pakistan and repeatedly attempting to gain citizenship, Khitab must return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where music is banned, effectively ending his career and sole source of income.

Who is affected

  • Najeebullah Khitab, Afghan singer born in Pakistan
  • Approximately 2.8 million Afghans living in Pakistan, including 1.3 million registered refugees
  • Afghan refugees holding various documentation (undocumented migrants, Afghan Citizen Card holders, and Proof of Registration cardholders)
  • Hundreds of Afghan families waiting outside the UNHCR office in Quetta
  • Afghan musicians and artists facing the Taliban's music ban

What action is being taken

  • Pakistan's government is conducting a large-scale deportation drive of Afghan refugees
  • The third phase of repatriation targeting Proof of Registration (PoR) cardholders is currently underway
  • Khitab and his family are waiting outside the UNHCR's Voluntary Repatriation Centre for their repatriation certificate
  • Quetta's district administration is tightening measures against Afghan refugees and urging them to leave
  • Hundreds of Afghan families are waiting at the UNHCR office with their belongings for the border to reopen

Why it matters

  • This situation represents a humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people who built lives over multiple generations in Pakistan, only to face forced return to a country many have never known. For artists like Khitab, deportation means not just losing their homes and livelihoods, but being forced into a society where their profession is banned entirely under Taliban rule. The failure of legal challenges, broken political promises about citizenship for refugees born in Pakistan, and the UNHCR's decreased involvement highlight how policy decisions and border politics can erase decades of integration and destroy individual futures. This crisis exemplifies the broader vulnerability of refugee populations caught between countries, with neither offering permanent stability or recognition.

What's next

  • No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices

The singer without a stage: An Afghan artist leaves the country that raised him