UN experts on Thursday expressed alarm about reports of European Union member states deporting Afghan nationals back to Afghanistan, and reminded those states of their obligations under international human rights and refugee law, including the principle of non-refoulement, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said in a statement from Geneva.
Source: OHCHR
“The human rights situation in Afghanistan remains dire. Women and girls are suffering gender persecution on such a widespread and systematic scale that they may amount to crimes against humanity,” the experts said. They listed serious violations against other groups too, including ethnic and religious minorities, human rights defenders, journalists and former Afghan security personnel, OHCHR reported.
Non-refoulement prohibits removing any person to a state where they face a risk of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention or a flagrant denial of justice, the experts said. They cited obligations under the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“States must ensure individualised assessments of risk prior to return,” the experts said. “Involuntary returns require due process. Diplomatic assurances from a destination State do not release States from their international obligations and should not be used as a loophole to undermine non-refoulement.”
Warning over Taliban engagement
The experts noted that the European Commission hosted the first ever official visit of a Taliban delegation to Brussels in June 2026 — described as “technical” by the Commission's spokesperson, while the Taliban delegation's leader called it “historic” — and warned that engagement without clear human-rights red lines normalises gross violations, including gender persecution, OHCHR said.
Some European member states continue such “technical discussions” to facilitate and prepare deportations and have accepted Taliban consular officials on their territories, the experts said. They added that they have formally contacted the European Union and the governments of several EU member states on the matter.
Amnesty International's EU office has taken the same legal position in its own submission on the returns policy, saying the protection from refoulement in international law is absolute, applies irrespective of a returnee's conduct, and cannot be set aside because the European Commission has said deportations will prioritise people who committed serious crimes or pose a security threat.
Source: Amnesty International EU office
What is solid
- The UN experts issued the warning on Thursday and formally contacted the EU and several member-state governments, OHCHR said.
- Non-refoulement is a binding obligation under the treaties the experts listed, and both OHCHR and Amnesty say it cannot be waived by diplomatic assurances.
What is only claimed
- The European Commission has described its Taliban engagement as ‘technical’; the Taliban delegation's leader described the June Brussels visit as ‘historic’ — the two sides characterise the same engagement differently.
Afghanistan is one of the world's largest refugee situations, and any EU move towards organised returns would set a precedent other host countries watch closely — including countries where large Punjabi and South Asian diaspora communities follow migration policy closely.