Jurist UN agencies warn of worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan amid mass returns

[Dadparvar]

Several UN aid agencies warned that Afghanistan’s escalating humanitarian crisis is being compounded by the mass return of its nationals from neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and Iran. The agencies also warned that the situation is further complicated by the struggling economy as well as restrictions on women’s rights.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that over 96,000 Afghans returned to the country in April alone, with 96,000 of them having been forcibly deported. Further, more than 3.4 million Afghans have returned or been deported from Pakistan and Iran since 2023, with the mass returns having strained Afghanistan’s provinces and raised the risk of further internal displacement. The agencies also informed that forcibly returned women and girls, as well as human rights activists, journalists, and ethnic/religious minorities, face heightened risks upon return.

Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for UNHCR said:

They face increasing restrictions in terms of access to employment, education and freedom of movement. We keep telling the governments of Iran and Pakistan that returns to Afghanistan must be voluntary, safe and dignified.

All of this comes more than three years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and after several rights organizations called for action on human rights in the country in September of last year. This also comes after Canada, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands announced plans to bring the Taliban to the International Court of Justice for gender discrimination in October 2024. Further, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had called for the Taliban’s “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law to be repealed in August 2024.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that nearly 60,000 Afghan refugees have been forcibly deported from Pakistan in April amid a wave of forced deportations by Pakistani authorities through its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP). These deportations have drawn several international condemnations, with UN human rights experts calling on Pakistan to stop displacing Afghans from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and further urged authorities not to carry out deportations to Afghanistan.

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