Forced deportation of Afghans, a gross violation of human rights

UN experts have called the forced deportation of Afghans from Iran, Pakistan, Germany, and other countries a gross violation of human rights.

UN experts issued a warning statement on Friday, July 18, regarding the deportation of Afghans from various countries to Afghanistan. The statement mentioned the deportation of a total of 1.9 million Afghans in the first six months of this year (2025) alone.

Of the 1.9 million Afghans, over 1.5 million have been deported from Iran and over 300,000 from Pakistan. In the statement, the experts, while pointing to discriminatory treatment and arbitrary detention in host countries, described the suspension of resettlement programs as worrying and criticized it.

The statement emphasized: "No government should ignore these real dangers in Afghanistan; to do so would be to ignore the moral and legal responsibility of governments." The experts called on countries that have deported Afghans to stop deportations and, while creating safe routes for migrants, provide greater protection for vulnerable people, especially women.

They also called for increased resettlement pathways and other legal options for transferring Afghans to third countries and facilitating the exit of Afghans from host countries. UN experts also warned that Taliban restrictions on women's work were making aid delivery more difficult.

"The forced and mass deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan are creating a multi-layered human rights crisis that must be stopped immediately," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. He also warned that deportations to Taliban-led Afghanistan, which exposes them to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, violate the fundamental principle of international law of non-refoulement.

Volker Turk stressed that migrants have the right to make such threats and that governments must fairly investigate these threats and claims before deporting them.