Over 52,000 Afghan families return to Afghanistan from Pakistan in three months
Kabul, June 22 (IANS) A total of 52,561 Afghan families have returned to Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan over the past three months, the official media Bakhtar News Agency reported on Monday.
The returnees have arrived through the Spin Boldak border crossing in southern Kandahar province and the Torkham crossing in eastern Nangarhar province, the report said.
Afghan authorities and humanitarian organizations have been providing assistance, including transportation, cash support, healthcare services and other essential aid to facilitate their reintegration, the report added, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The number of returnees has increased in recent months, prompting continued efforts by the authorities to address their immediate needs and support their resettlement across the country.
On June 20, Amnesty International urged international community to stop unlawful expulsion of Afghan refugees and called for protecting their needs as per international human rights law.
Afghan refugees face arbitrary arrests and family separations in host nations and face human rights violations when they return to Afghanistan, the rights group said.
“Millions of Afghan refugees are being expelled across the globe, and that number keeps climbing day by day. In host countries, they are facing arbitrary arrests and family separations; upon return, they are facing human rights violations amidst one of the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world,” Amnesty said in a post on X.
“The unlawful expulsions of Afghan people must stop, and people with international protection needs must be safeguarded as per international human rights law,” it added.
The agency’s statement came as international agencies have reported an increase in the deportation of Afghan refugees from neighbouring nations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have repeatedly said that the return of Afghan refugees must be safe and dignified and called for greater international support for returnees.
Earlier in May, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned against the continued forced repatriation of Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers from host countries to Afghanistan, calling it a violation of international human rights and refugee law.
“Afghan women, children and men continue to be pushed out of countries where they had sought safety, forcing them to return to Afghanistan against their will and exposing them to grave risk,” he said.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 270,000 Afghans have been deported to Afghanistan since the beginning of the year, almost mainly from Iran and Pakistan, with relatively smaller numbers from Turkey and Tajikistan. This comes in addition to the over 1.2 million Afghan refugees deported from Iran and 150,000 from Pakistan last year.
The UN human rights agency stressed that women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former Afghan government and its security forces, media workers, civil society, and members of the LGBTIQ+ community remain at grave risk of reprisals and human rights abuses.
“Returning individuals at serious risk of human rights violations involuntarily to Afghanistan runs contrary to the core international law principle of non-refoulement. I urge States to abide by their international legal obligations and protect Afghans by not taking any action that exposes them to irreparable harm upon return,” Turk said
–IANS
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