RASC News Agency: As Pakistan intensifies its stringent policies against Afghanistani refugees, leading human rights organizations are raising serious concerns about the humanitarian and legal implications of forced returns. Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a strongly worded statement, has warned that deporting Afghanistani nationals particularly women and girls back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan risks exposing them to systemic violence, oppression, and potential rights violations. Heather Barr, Deputy Director of the Women’s Rights Division at HRW, emphasized in an interview with international media outlets that Afghanistan remains fundamentally unsafe for returnees especially women. “The Taliban have systematically stripped women of their most basic rights,” Barr stated. “Forcibly returning them to such an environment is not only unethical, it places them in direct danger of gender-based violence, persecution, and institutionalized discrimination.”
Barr further underscored that the Taliban’s prohibition of girls’ education and severe restrictions on women’s participation in society are only symptomatic of broader and ongoing human rights abuses. “No country should be complicit in returning Afghanistanis to a regime where dignity, freedom, and safety are categorically denied,” she added. In its statement, HRW urged the Pakistani government to immediately halt its deportation campaign and ensure that Afghanistani refugees especially women and vulnerable individuals are provided with safe, dignified protection within Pakistani territory. The organization also called on Western governments to expedite resettlement processes for Afghanistanis at risk, particularly for women who have fled their homeland in search of safety.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 120,000 Afghanistani refugees have been expelled from Pakistan since the beginning of April 2025. A considerable number of these returnees are women and girls, many of whom face heightened risk under Taliban rule. The UNHCR had previously warned that the forced return of female refugees to Afghanistan could have devastating humanitarian consequences. Since 2023, Pakistan has intermittently deported undocumented Afghanistani nationals. However, the recent shift to include holders of the Afghanistan Citizen Card (ACC) a document previously recognized as legitimate refugee identification has raised the alarm further. This new phase of deportations, critics argue, reflects an indiscriminate policy that disregards international legal standards and humanitarian principles.
The Pakistani government’s escalating deportation drive comes amid an ongoing human rights crisis in Afghanistan. Under Taliban rule, women are systematically denied access to education, employment, healthcare, mobility, and justice. Sending female refugees back to such an environment constitutes a direct violation of international human rights law, including the principle of non-refoulement, which forbids the return of individuals to countries where they are at risk of serious harm. Despite repeated warnings from the international community, Islamabad continues its mass deportation campaign, further jeopardizing the safety and dignity of thousands of Afghanistanis who fled persecution. With global attention shifting elsewhere, human rights advocates caution that the international community risks complicity in what is fast becoming a silent humanitarian catastrophe.
The time for symbolic expressions of concern has passed. The international community particularly democratic nations must now take concrete steps by expanding resettlement programs, issuing emergency humanitarian visas, and applying diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to reverse this regressive course of action. As the number of deportations grows, so too does the cost borne not only by those returned to a regime of repression but also by the conscience of the world.
