Taliban Rejects UNAMA Report on Abuse of Returnees

DID Press: Taliban’s caretaker Foreign Ministry rejected a recent report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) that alleged torture, acts of revenge, arbitrary detentions, and security threats against deported Afghanistani migrants.

In a statement, the ministry said that, on the orders of Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s caretaker prime minister, a joint commission from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Interior Ministry, and the General Directorate of Intelligence was tasked to investigate the allegations. The commission, it said, concluded that UNAMA’s findings were “biased and unfounded.”

The Taliban authorities claimed that the report was based solely on interviews with 49 individuals, while “millions” of Afghanistan citizens had returned “in safety and dignity.” They described the sampling as limited and selective, and alleged that many of the accusations lacked concrete evidence.

The statement also criticized UNAMA’s use of terms such as “revenge” and “torture” as indicators of “political bias,” adding that the absence of specific details on locations, dates, and individuals made it impossible to verify the claims.

UNAMA’s report also cited accounts from women who alleged they had been forced into marriage with Taliban members or had faced threats to their lives, as well as cases of returnees being killed in Takhar and Paktia provinces.

The Taliban dismissed these claims as unsubstantiated.

The caretaker government further accused UNAMA of focusing solely on negative aspects while “overlooking the country’s progress