KABUL – A new UN report released today reveals disturbing evidence that the Taliban are committing serious human rights violations, particularly torture, arbitrary detention, and threats, against Afghans who have been forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan.
The report released today focuses on individuals at high risk, including women and girls, former government officials and security personnel, media workers, and civil society activists, many of whom face reprisals immediately upon arrival in Afghanistan.
Among the documented abuses are torture, including beatings with sticks, cables, electric shocks, and mock executions. Victims describe beatings so severe that one non-binary returnee “was beaten severely, including with the back of a gun.” Some underwent waterboarding, were blindfolded, or subjected to threats.
Women and girls, in particular, face gender-based persecution that “amounts to persecution on the basis of their gender alone,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who emphasized that “nobody should be sent back to a country where they face risk of persecution.
These abductions and maltreatment are occurring amid a backdrop of mass returns. From 2023 through 2025, over 1.9 million Afghans have been involuntarily sent back, primarily from Iran, under mass deportation policies. That figure could reach three million by year’s end, according to UNHCR estimates, compounding Afghanistan’s already dire humanitarian challenges.
The report also underscores that despite Taliban claims of offering support, such as registration, medical services, cash grants, and identity documents, severe risks persist. Returnees often face fear of arrest, threat to personal security, restricted movement, and are sometimes even killed after arrival.
While the UN report states that the principle of non-refoulement under international law forbids returning individuals to places where they risk serious harm, the report highlights that state-led pressure, coercion, and lack of alternatives make many of these deportations effectively involuntary.
The Taliban have defended their actions, denying allegations of torture or targeted persecution and calling for the UN to prevent forced deportations. They state they provide “a warm welcome” and humanitarian support to returnees.
Human rights organizations, however, are urging a different course that countries like Iran and Pakistan immediately halt forced returns and respect individual human rights assessments. They also call on the international community to expand safe resettlement pathways and provide increased support to Afghanistan to mitigate the humanitarian fallout.
