More than 150 Afghans detained in Louisiana are facing a charter flight to Pakistan as early as Monday, November 2, with Afghanistan as the effective destination, according to New York Times and Reuters reporting on October 30 and 31. The plan has not been publicly announced by Washington, and Pakistan has not publicly confirmed its role. That silence is the heart of the story: the flight only works if Pakistan accepts it, and Pakistan is already expelling Afghans by the million.
The flight taking shape in Louisiana
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved Afghan detainees from facilities across the country to Louisiana in recent days, and dozens are now held there. The New York Times reported that a chartered flight could depart as early as November 2, and court documents cited by the newspaper list one man, Mohammad, 47, as a passenger on a charter flight leaving Alexandria, Louisiana, in the first week of November. Three United States officials told the newspaper the deportation is, in effect, to Afghanistan, and detainees have been told the same. The Department of Homeland Security declined to confirm details of any future removal operation, citing operational security.
Why the route runs through Pakistan
Washington cannot arrange removals directly to Afghanistan, having no diplomatic relations with the Taliban authorities. A United States official told Reuters that the deportations would therefore be carried out via Pakistan. NBC News reported that a senior administration official confirmed the proposed flight to Pakistan, adding that it could not land there without the Pakistani government’s knowledge and approval. But the precise arrangements between Washington and Islamabad have not been publicly explained, the final passenger list is unconfirmed, and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry and its Washington embassy did not respond to requests for comment. The route is confirmed by American officials; the Pakistani side of the arrangement is not.
The second deportation waiting at the other end
Arrival in Pakistan would not end the journey for the people on the flight. Pakistan has expelled more than two million Afghan nationals to Afghanistan since 2023, according to Reuters. Global Refuge puts the figure higher, saying more than 2.7 million Afghans have been expelled or forced to return since 2023, and that Islamabad has vowed to remove the roughly 1.5 million who remain. The International Organization for Migration recorded more than 1.1 million Afghan returns from Pakistan in 2025 alone. Pakistan took its Afghan case to the United Nations again this week, and Ishaq Dar warned the Afghan Taliban of consequences over terrorism, showing how hard Islamabad’s line toward Kabul has become. Even the border crossings tell the same story: the year-long Afghan trade halt that cost exporters more than $2.5 billion left Torkham reopened for refugee repatriation while cargo stays shut. The machinery at the border is already geared to returns, not arrivals.
Who is on the list
The group includes relatives of people who worked with the United States military, and at least one gay man, according to the Times reporting. The European Union Agency for Asylum’s February 2026 assessment describes prohibitions on same-sex conduct under Taliban rules and reports detention, torture and other abuse affecting LGBTQ people. American law offers a protection called withholding of removal: it bars deportation to a country where someone faces qualifying threats, while allowing removal to another country where those threats would not exist. The Pakistan routing tests that logic directly: the first stop is safe on paper, but the onward step is the threat itself. One named case shows the mix on the list: Mohammad, listed for the Alexandria flight, entered the country illegally in 2024 and had his asylum application denied following felony convictions, according to the reporting. Even cases with convictions raise the same onward question, because the destination is not Pakistan but Afghanistan.
Three tests before Monday
Three questions will decide whether this plan becomes a flight. First, does the charter actually leave on November 2 and land in Pakistan? Second, does Islamabad confirm, deny or stay silent on its role, given that American officials say the flight cannot land without its knowledge and approval? Third, do courts or Congress intervene first? Lawyers for several detainees received notices saying their clients would be deported to Afghanistan in early November, and AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver urged lawmakers to ask the Department of Homeland Security who is on the flight and where it is going. Global Refuge has called for the plan to be halted or reversed before a deportation flight carries more than 150 Afghans to Pakistan. Until those three answers arrive, the plan exists in the space between an unannounced operation and a denied destination, and the people on the list are the ones who will pay for the gap. For more developments, see national news from Pakistan.
