UN Expert Warns Europe Against Deporting Migrants to Afghanistan, Citing Ongoing Torture Risks

Geneva / Brussels – Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, has issued a stark warning to European governments against deporting Afghan nationals, asserting that torture, arbitrary detention, and other grave human rights violations remain pervasive across the country. In a strongly worded statement, Bennett argued that no diplomatic assurances from the de facto authorities in Kabul can credibly eliminate these dangers.

“The principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the UN Convention Against Torture is absolute and must be upheld without exception,” Bennett said. “Diplomatic guarantees are not a legal loophole. They cannot be used to justify returning individuals to environments where substantial grounds exist to believe they would face torture, persecution, or irreversible harm.”

The UN expert’s intervention comes amid mounting pressure on European Union member states to accelerate the repatriation of Afghan asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected. According to a recent report by Reuters, Belgium has issued one-day, geographically restricted visas to five members of a Taliban delegation, who have been invited to Brussels for EU-led technical discussions on migration cooperation and the potential return of undocumented Afghan nationals.

EU officials have been careful to frame the proposed meeting as a strictly operational dialogue, emphasizing that it does not imply any form of diplomatic recognition of the Taliban administration, which has not been formally acknowledged by any Western government since its takeover in August 2021. If the talks proceed as planned, they will mark the first known instance of Taliban representatives engaging directly with an EU-affiliated institution.

However, human rights advocates and UN experts have repeatedly condemned such engagement, warning that it risks legitimizing a regime that has systematically dismantled fundamental freedoms. Rights groups point to Afghanistan’s deteriorating security environment, the collapse of its economic infrastructure, and the Taliban’s sweeping restrictions on women’s education and employment. Particularly at risk are former government employees, judges, journalists, civil society activists, and members of religious and ethnic minorities, who face heightened threats of retaliation.

The debate over deportations is unfolding against a broader political backdrop in Europe, where several governments including those in Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands are seeking to tighten asylum laws and streamline removal procedures in response to rising public concern over irregular migration. Yet these policy ambitions are increasingly clashing with legal and logistical realities. Most European states have no formal diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, and consular cooperation with the Taliban remains virtually nonexistent, making even routine repatriations fraught with legal and procedural uncertainty.

Meanwhile, international humanitarian organizations continue to document a dire crisis inside Afghanistan. The UN estimates that more than 23 million Afghans require urgent humanitarian assistance, while food insecurity, economic collapse, and the erosion of basic health services have pushed millions to the brink. The UN has repeatedly called on all states to ensure that their migration policies remain fully compliant with international human rights law, and to prioritize the protection of vulnerable individuals over political expediency.

As European policymakers weigh security concerns against legal obligations, Bennett’s warning serves as a pointed reminder that the responsibility to protect human dignity does not end at national borders and that outsourcing that responsibility to a regime with a documented record of abuse is neither lawful nor morally defensible.

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