UN Experts Concerned About Mass Forced Returns Of Afghan Nationals

On July 18, 2025, several United Nations experts, including Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Mai Sato, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, published a statement condemning ongoing deportations and mass forced returns of Afghan nationals from Iran and Pakistan, and other countries. As the statement indicated, “More than 1.9 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan so far in 2025. More than 300,000 people have returned from Pakistan and over a 1.5 million from Iran, including 410,000 who have been deported from Iran since June 24. Thousands of the returnees are unaccompanied children. Following the Iran-Israel conflict, forced returns of Afghan nationals have escalated, including those with valid documentation. Security-related discourse has intensified anti-Afghan sentiment.” As the statement added, “Returns must be halted immediately. Afghanistan is not a safe country for returnees, given the constantly deteriorating human rights situation since the Taliban seized control, nearly four years ago.”

In August 2025, it will be four years since the Taliban took over power (on August 15, 2021). What followed the takeover can only be described as a total reversal of the progress made in the country during the twenty years of the Afghan Republic, and the return of terror. Gross human rights violations became a common occurrence yet again with atrocity crimes against ethnic and religious minorities, gender persecution and gender apartheid, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, and much more. Women and girls are systematically deprived of their fundamental rights to the point that they are effectively confined to the four walls of their homes. Former security and government officials, including judges and prosecutors, those critical of Taliban policies, such as human rights defenders and journalists, as well as religious and ethnic minorities are at particular risk of reprisals and serious harms in the country, and even more so – if they are returned.

With every decision taken so far, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan ensure that there is no human rights and no viable opposition to the Taliban – so that their reign could continue without even the slightest criticism. The Taliban have been resorting to inhumane punishments, including capital and corporal punishments, often enforced in public to terrorize Afghan population. Among others, in April 2025, four men had been publicly executed as part of the Taliban’s Qisas (retribution in kind –in reference to religious law) – bringing the total number of reported public executions carried out since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 to at least 10. Furthermore, the Taliban has been using corporal punishment, mostly lashings, often for such acts as sodomy, running away from home, and “illicit relationships.” The U.N. reported at least 213 such punishments (169 males and 44 females) since the beginning of 2025.

Afghanistan is not a safe country, and Russia formally recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government will not change this. As the U.N. experts emphasized, “Those forced to return have genuine fears for their safety and security and face very real risks of persecution, threats, and violent reprisals. No government should ignore these very real dangers in Afghanistan – doing so would constitute an abandonment of their moral and legal responsibility.”

The forced returns may violate the principle of non-refoulement. Furthermore, as the U.N. experts warned, “States, due to the sheer quantity and forceful nature of returns, cannot ensure that Afghan nationals have access to fair procedures where their individual protection needs are fully assessed. Many Afghans have experienced discrimination, mistreatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, raising serious concerns under international refugee and human rights law.”

The dire situation in Afghanistan calls for an increased humanitarian response for Afghanistan and host countries to address the international protection needs – not the opposite as recently seen. As the world is dealing with one of the worst refugee crisis in years, as exacerbated with every new conflict and situation of concerns, we cannot abandon the rules-based order designed to ensure humane responses to such situations.