UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Friday sentenced the forced return of refugees and asylum seekers to Afghanistan by countries in the name of concern for national security or economic hardship, seen as a clear violation of international human rights law.
Stressing the urgency of the humanitarian crisis affecting this marginalized group, Turkish specified:
The involuntary return to Afghanistan of persons at serious risk of human rights violations violates the core principle of non-refoulement under international law. I call on States to respect their international legal obligations and protect Afghans by not taking actions that would cause them irreparable harm upon their return.
More than four decades Permanent conflictA pattern of documented human rights abuses and severe economic instability caused by the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government in 2021, which effectively dissolved the country’s democracy, have led to thousands of civilians fleeing to seek refuge. Afghan refugees already living in Pakistan vulnerable Due to their limited access to food, health care and education, they have also been subject to home raids, night searches and arrests without warrants.
Despite having valid visas, they are still being held in detention camps and refugees are finding it very difficult to gain access to proper documents as the Pakistani government stops the renewal of registration proof cards in 2023. Statistics further worsen the dire situation in the country as over 146,000 Afghans were deported from Pakistan in 2026 alone. Iran, which hosts one of the largest Afghan refugee populations in the world, has also followed suit, accelerating its deportation rates and, most recently, deportations 1.5 million Afghans out of the country.
Recently, the European Union faced strong criticism from human rights activists for inviting Taliban officials to Brussels to discuss the issue of deporting Afghan refugees. Plans to deport the 35 percent of the Afghan population in Europe who have not been granted asylum have been denounced as violating standards of international humanitarian law. It is also in contradiction to the 2024 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union Joined cases AH and FNIt found that the Taliban’s systematic oppression of Afghan women constituted a form of persecution, making nationality and gender sufficient grounds for refugee status without the need to prove an individual risk of harm.
Women, girls and human rights defenders will face an unprecedented influx of gender-based sexual violence, torture and arbitrary detention, with the possibility of death if returned to the country. This violates the principle Non-refoulementcodified under Article 33 the 1951 Refugee Convention, which states that people cannot be returned to their country if they are subjected to cruel and degrading treatment.
