Islamabad, Pakistan – They were a common sight in major Pakistani cities and performed low-paid work – loading goods at markets, pushing carts on the street to sell fruit and vegetables, or collecting garbage.

But since the beginning of the month, these Afghans have disappeared from public view, according to the Pakistani government ordered a raid on undocumented refugees and migrants, almost 1.7 million of them from neighboring countries.

Air conditioning technician Raza Ali, who works at a large electronics store in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city in the eastern province of Punjab, told Al Jazeera he was “not friends with them, but they were always there”.

“But since the government started cracking down, they have simply disappeared. It could be good for us because now our people can do their jobs,” the 31-year-old told Al Jazeera.

“See, they weren’t from here. If the government sends them back to their own country, what’s wrong with that? I think this is the right decision. Besides, I didn’t know her. It makes no difference in my life,” he added nonchalantly.

Ali’s feelings perhaps explain the muted reaction of ordinary Pakistanis to this Expulsion of Afghan refugeesMany of them were born in Pakistan and had never seen Afghanistan.

Afghan migration to Pakistan began in the late 1970s after the Soviets invaded their country. Then the Afghans came in further waves after the United States attacked Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks and the recent Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.

According to the Pakistani government, whose expulsion campaign began on November 1, 1.7 million of the nearly 4 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan were undocumented. Islamabad blames the refugees for a recent surge in attacks by armed groups, largely carried out by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban due to their ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan’s Acting Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, the top government official overseeing the expulsion operation, claimed last month that 14 of 24 suicide attacks in the country this year had been carried out by Afghan nationals.

Last week he told parliament that more than 300,000 Afghans had left the country this month, despite criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups of the violent expulsion of refugees and migrants.

But there is no visible outrage at the move within Pakistan – a silence contrasting with their anger over Israel’s forced displacement – and what many experts call genocide – of Palestinian civilians Gaza.

“A lot of racism”

Gallup Pakistan, in a poll conducted in the first week of November, found that 84 percent of respondents “strongly supported” the government’s move to expel the “illegal” refugees and migrants, mostly from Afghanistan.

Additionally, an overwhelming 64 percent of respondents said that repatriating Afghans would lead to greater security and peace in Pakistan.

Muhammed Rehan, a bookstore owner in Karachi, the country’s largest city and a refuge for tens of thousands of Afghans, said that while the government’s decision may have been guided by “frustration” over its inability to control rising violence, he said However, she agreed with the reasons for her exclusion.

“The decision to repatriate people without papers is the right one. There are many criminal elements among them and the police must be careful to only arrest those who are undocumented or who have committed a crime,” he told Al Jazeera.

Adil Musa, a real estate dealer in the capital Islamabad, also supported the government’s decision, saying it will improve the law and order situation.

“These Afghan families also impacted the rental market in Islamabad, making it difficult for locals to purchase properties,” he told Al Jazeera.

However, Pakistani sociologist Nida Kirmani believes there is “great racism” against Afghans in Pakistan, which she says is due to years of “state-sponsored brainwashing” that portrayed Afghans as enemies.

Kirmani, an associate professor of sociology at the Lahore University of Management Science, told Al Jazeera that the Pakistani state portrays Afghans as “terrorists,” even though the state apparatus itself is central to the growth of groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“Many people here have bought into these narratives. Furthermore, in times of economic uncertainty and upheaval, we often experience an increase in xenophobic discourses and movements. The current scenario is part of this general trend and Afghans are becoming easy scapegoats,” she said.

Karachi-based lawyer Sara Malkani claims there was “some resistance” from civil society groups to the government’s decision. One reason for the muted public outrage, she said, could be fears that the state could suppress mass anti-government protests.

“There is public sympathy in some quarters and there are activists who are demanding that the government bring more transparency to the country [expulsion] processes, but there is a need to educate people about why Afghans chose to flee Afghanistan and what role the Pakistani state has played in maintaining conditions in Afghanistan,” she told Al Jazeera.

Malkani said it was important to change public perceptions in Pakistan toward Afghans returning to a country impoverished by decades of conflict and now facing a political and humanitarian crisis.

“Under the current Taliban government, we are already experiencing widespread gender apartheid, with girls being denied the right to education and women being denied the right to employment and mobility. It is unreasonable to forcibly deport them [to face these problems],” She said.