UNHCR: Taliban Ban on Women’s Work Shuts Down Eight Returnee Service Centers

Image: IOMAfghanistan/X

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that following the Taliban’s ban on female employees, eight service centers for returnees in Afghanistan have been closed.

Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, said these centers have been closed since 9 September. The centers provided daily support services to around seven thousand returnees. He added that interviews and biometric registration of women can only be conducted with the presence of female staff, and now these activities have stopped.

Earlier, UNAMA had reported that since 7 September the Taliban have prevented female UN employees from entering offices in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif. Taliban fighters stationed outside the offices warned female staff that they are not allowed to work in any UN or international institutions.

The United Nations says that the continuation of such restrictions poses serious challenges to the delivery of aid to those in need, especially women and children.

At the same time, UNHCR has said its funding is rapidly running out and that it urgently requires 258 million dollars to continue providing life-saving assistance to Afghan returnees.

According to the organization’s statistics, since April more than 554 thousand Afghan migrants have been deported from Pakistan. In August alone, 143 thousand were forcibly returned, and in the first week of September more than 100 thousand others returned to Afghanistan.

Arafat Jamal, speaking at a press conference in Geneva, said that since the beginning of this year 2.6 million people have returned to Afghanistan. He warned that these returns, taking place under difficult conditions while efforts are underway to rebuild earthquake-affected areas, are creating a new crisis in the country. According to him, in earthquake-hit areas there have even been families who recently returned from Pakistan only to lose their homes again.

The organization has called on Pakistan and other countries in the region to ensure that returns must be “voluntary, safe, and dignified” and that no one should be sent back to a place where their rights and freedoms are at risk.

Nevertheless, Taliban-affiliated media have reported that only yesterday (12 September) 1,102 Afghan families entered the country through various border crossings.