Afghan Refugee Truck Crash Kills 22 on Kabul Route

A long road home ended in a ditch before dawn, with children among the dead.

In eastern Afghanistan, a truck carrying Afghans returning from Pakistan overturned on Saturday, killing at least 22 people. About 36 others were injured, most of them women and children.

This was not just another highway accident. It was a hard, cruel reminder of what return looks like for many Afghan families. Not an airport arrival. Not a planned homecoming. Often, it is a packed truck, a rough road, and too little control over what comes next.

Deadly crash on Kabul route

The accident took place in Laghman, on the main highway that links Kabul with Nangarhar province. Abdul Malik Niazai, spokesperson for the provincial governor, said the truck was carrying Afghan refugees who had recently returned from Pakistan.

Officials said the vehicle fell into a ditch after the driver fell asleep. Aminullah Sharif, the provincial public health director, confirmed that 22 people died and about 36 were injured.

Among the dead were 10 children and five women, Niazai said. The injured were shifted to hospitals in Nangarhar, which sits close to the Pakistan border and often becomes the first stop for returning families.

For Indian readers, this detail matters. We are used to thinking of migration through paperwork, visas, border posts, and queues. In Afghanistan, the last stretch can be far more fragile. A family may survive displacement, eviction, and border pressure, only to face danger on the road home.

Return from Pakistan turns harsher

The passengers were part of a much larger movement of Afghans leaving Pakistan. Pakistan began a crackdown on undocumented migrants in 2023. Since then, many Afghans have either been deported or pushed to leave under growing pressure.

Iran also stepped up expulsions of Afghan migrants around the same period. Together, these actions have sent millions of Afghans back into a country still struggling with jobs, housing, basic services, and public safety.

Many of those returning are not short-term migrants. Some were born in Pakistan. Some spent decades there, worked there, raised children there, and built lives that were never fully secure.

That is the harsh part of this story. “Returning home” sounds simple only from a distance. For many Afghan families, home is a place their children may barely know. It can mean no steady income, uncertain shelter, and a long wait for help that may not arrive quickly.

A truck journey, in that setting, is not a travel choice. It is often the cheapest available option. Families carrying bedding, utensils, documents, and children may take whatever transport they can afford.

Roads make journeys riskier

Afghanistan’s roads have long been dangerous, especially outside major urban stretches. Poor maintenance, overloaded vehicles, weak enforcement, and driver fatigue create a deadly mix.

Officials said the Laghman crash happened after the driver fell asleep. That single detail tells its own story. Long-distance drivers often push through exhaustion because trips must be completed, vehicles must earn, and passengers cannot easily wait.

This is where travel and survival overlap. On paper, a highway connects Kabul and Nangarhar. In real life, it carries traders, families, returnees, patients, labourers, and people with nowhere better to sit than the back of a truck.

Road safety rarely gets the attention that border politics does. Yet for ordinary people, the road can be the most immediate danger. A bad turn, a sleepy driver, or a weak barrier can decide a family’s fate.

Afghan authorities have often blamed road crashes on weak infrastructure and careless driving. Both may be true. But when people travel in crowded trucks after forced or pressured movement, risk grows before the engine even starts.

Another crash in Nuristan

The Laghman accident was not the only road emergency reported over the weekend. In Nuristan province, a car fell off the road into a river on Friday night.

The governor’s office said the driver was injured and four passengers went missing. Rescue teams were searching for them on Saturday.

Nuristan’s terrain is difficult, with narrow mountain roads and river valleys. Even without heavy traffic, such routes can punish one mistake. For families and workers who depend on these roads, the danger is part of daily life.

Taken together, the two accidents show a wider Afghan problem. Movement inside the country remains risky, especially for those without money for safer transport. The poorest travellers face the hardest journeys.

There is also a quiet public health angle here. Hospitals in provinces such as Nangarhar do not just treat local illness. They absorb the human cost of road crashes, border returns, and sudden emergencies.

For a health system already under strain, dozens of injured passengers mean beds, doctors, blood, medicines, and relatives waiting outside wards. One crash can stretch a local hospital for days.

A homecoming without safety

This tragedy also raises a question that goes beyond Afghanistan. What happens after a country pushes migrants out?

Border policy often stops at removal numbers. It counts how many people left. It rarely follows the bus, truck, or family after the crossing.

For Afghan returnees, the next stage can be the most painful. They may need shelter, transport, food, documents, school access for children, and work. Without that support, return becomes another form of displacement.

India has its own long memory of migration and partitioned lives. We know that people do not move only as numbers. They move with fears, debts, memories, and children asleep beside them.

That is why the Laghman crash should not be read as a local road mishap alone. It sits inside a larger chain of pressure, poverty, weak transport, and poor safety.

A truck fell into a ditch, yes. But before that, families had already been pushed onto a hard road. For ordinary Afghans, the journey home will mean little unless home also offers safety, dignity, and a fair chance to begin again.