KABUL: The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that several officials from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) were summoned to the ministry due to a recent report regarding the mistreatment and threats faced by returning migrants. Zia Ahmad Takal, the deputy spokesperson for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, stated that the meeting aimed to urge UNAMA to seriously reconsider its “reporting methodology.” He added that, at the directive of the Taliban’s Prime Minister, a commission comprising the Ministries of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Interior Affairs, and General Intelligence has been formed to review the report. According to Takal, the findings of this commission indicate that the examples in UNAMA’s report are “limited and biased,” focusing on negative issues and “baseless” claims of torture, arbitrary detention, revenge, and mistreatment, rather than reflecting the positive experiences of returnees. He emphasized that many allegations lack specifics regarding location, time, and individual identities, making them unverifiable. The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that if such reports are repeated, “appropriate action” will be taken. UNAMA and the UN Human Rights Office issued a joint report stating that certain officials and former military personnel, along with women activists, journalists, and civil society activists who returned to Afghanistan involuntarily, faced threats, torture, and arbitrary detentions. This report, based on interviews with 49 individuals in 2024, noted that some returnees had to live in hiding due to fears of harassment. Additionally, UNAMA stated that the Taliban has intensified oversight of hijab compliance and imposed further restrictions on women’s work and mobility, including prohibiting services to women without a male guardian and pressuring beauticians.
