Islamabad: The Taliban have tortured and threatened Afghans forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan because of their identity or personal history, a UN report said Thursday.
Pakistan and Iran are expelling millions of Afghans who they say are living in their countries illegally. Afghan authorities have urged nationals to return, pledging amnesty for anyone who left after the Taliban seized power in 2021.
But rights groups and the UN have repeatedly warned that some of those returning are at risk of persecution because of their gender, links to the former Western-backed administration or profession.
Thursday’s report from the UN mission in Afghanistan said some people have experienced serious human rights violations, while others have gone into hiding or relocated for fear of Taliban reprisal.
The violations include torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest, and threats to personal security at the hands of the Taliban, according to the report.
A former government official told the UN mission that, after his return to Afghanistan in 2023, he was detained and severely tortured with sticks and cables. He was waterboarded and subjected to a mock execution.
A non-binary person said they were beaten severely, including with the back of a gun.
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said nobody should be sent back to a country where they faced the risk of persecution on account of their identity or personal history.
This was even more pronounced for Afghan women and girls, who were subjected to a range of measures “amounting to persecution based on their gender alone,” he added.
The Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on Afghan girls and women, cutting off education beyond sixth grade, most employment and access to many public spaces.
Responding to the report, Taliban authorities denied mistreating Afghan returnees and rejected allegations of arrest, violence, intimidation or retaliation against people because of their identity or personal history.
Afghans returning from neighbouring countries were provided with facilities related to documentation, transportation, resettlement, and other legal support, they said, while the Interior Ministry provides a “warm welcome.”
They called on the UN mission to prevent forced deportations, adding the United Nations as a whole “should not hesitate” in providing basic needs to refugees, such as food, medicine, shelter and education.
Afghans who left their homeland in the millions over the decades are either being pushed out in expulsion campaigns, like those in Iran and Pakistan, or face an uncertain future because of reduced support for refugees.
On Monday, thousands of Afghans in the US lost protection from deportation after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the US President Donald Trump administration’s decision to end their legal status.
Homeland Security officials said in their decision to end the Temporary Protected Status for Afghans that the situation in their home country was getting better. But groups helping Afghans with this status say the country is still extremely dangerous.
The Trump administration’s January suspension of a refugee programme has left thousands of Afghans stranded, particularly in Pakistan, and a travel ban on Afghans has further diminished their hopes of resettlement in the US.
AP
