India’s NSA Meets Russian Officials Amid Taliban Recognition Concerns

Speaking during a meeting with the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kabul on Wednesday, Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs Abdul Salam Hanafi said the group is capable of managing the influx of returnees.

According to a statement issued by the Taliban, IOM Director General António Vitorino reiterated the organisation’s commitment to supporting returnees through education and employment initiatives. He also said the IOM is prepared to help address their humanitarian needs.

Hanafi acknowledged the mounting challenges but said the Taliban administration is working to provide job opportunities and basic services for those returning. He also urged host countries and international organisations to honour their obligations to Afghan migrants and step up support.

The meeting came a day after Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s acting Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, held talks with the IOM’s chief of mission in Afghanistan. Kabir warned of the harsh conditions returnees may face during the approaching winter and appealed for urgent international assistance, particularly in providing shelter.

However, humanitarian agencies and rights groups have repeatedly criticised the Taliban for failing to adequately protect and support returnees. Critics argue the root causes of mass migration, including widespread unemployment, political repression, and severe restrictions on women’s rights, remain unresolved, making safe and voluntary return unfeasible.

Human Rights Watch has described Afghanistan as facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The situation has been exacerbated by the suspension of most international aid and the forced return of over 1.9 million migrants from Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of the year, according to recent UN data.

In a report released this week, the FAO said Afghanistan is facing a severe and multi-layered drought crisis that poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of farming and herding communities. The findings are based on field assessments and satellite imagery.

According to the report, successive droughts have led to reduced soil moisture, a shortage of pasture, and the weakening of rural economies. Climate-driven environmental degradation has further eroded the resilience of already vulnerable communities.

The FAO said it urgently requires $34.5 million to assist 1.04 million people across 16 provinces, including Bamyan, Ghor, Herat, Balkh, Faryab, Jawzjan, Samangan, Sar-e Pul, Daikundi, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul, Ghazni, Nangarhar, Paktika and Panjshir.

The report also highlighted a growing outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among livestock. It added that rain-fed agriculture has largely failed in many areas, while irrigated farming faces increasing pressure from declining groundwater levels and widespread water shortages.

The FAO warned that the crisis could have serious repercussions beyond food production, affecting access to clean water, public health, displacement, environmental protection, and the reintegration of returnees.

In a post written in Pashto regarding the arrest of six university students on blasphemy charges, Saif-ul-Islam Khyber inserted slashes between letters in the ministry’s name, rendering it as: “Am/robelm/a/roof aw nah/yi an el/m/unkar aw shikayatoon awreedlo wezarat” — a distorted version of “Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and Listening to Complaints.”

This marks the first known instance in which the ministry’s spokesperson has avoided using the ministry’s full name on X. It suggests that the platform may be actively monitoring or restricting content that includes direct references to Taliban institutions.

Previously, Facebook and other platforms introduced similar restrictions on accounts using the Taliban’s name following the group’s return to power in 2021. In response, many users adopted tactics such as altered spellings, inserted punctuation, and spacing to bypass algorithmic detection.

The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has been widely criticised for enforcing decrees that have severely restricted civil liberties, particularly the rights of women and girls, across Afghanistan. International human rights groups have consistently condemned the ministry’s role in implementing orders issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Under the group’s Promotion of Virtue law, the ministry’s so-called morality police are empowered to monitor citizens’ dress, behaviour, and beliefs. They routinely detain individuals accused of violating the group’s interpretation of Islamic conduct.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, 6 August, the women urged the United Nations to immediately halt the forced return of Afghan refugees from neighbouring states, warning of severe and irreversible consequences.

The statement, released by the women’s rights group Window of Hope and shared with Afghanistan International, described the expulsions as a direct threat to the lives of thousands of women, children and families who fled persecution, war and tyranny.

The group warned that sending women and girls back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is effectively returning them to “hell” where they are denied education, employment, freedom of movement and the right to live with dignity.

The statement also highlighted a rise in gender-based violence, increased suicide rates among women and girls, growing poverty, homelessness and worsening humanitarian conditions as likely outcomes of continued deportations.

Window of Hope called on the United Nations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), international human rights organisations and governments to urgently establish a UN-led monitoring and protection mechanism specifically for Afghan migrant women. The group said such a framework is essential to prevent further expulsions and to protect those most at risk.

The group concluded that the deportation of Afghan women under current conditions constitutes complicity in gender apartheid.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Lindsay confirmed that a meeting had been convened to address the ongoing human rights crisis in Afghanistan. The meeting was attended by the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, the UN special rapporteur on the situation in Afghanistan, and several human rights activists.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the suppression of fundamental freedoms and systemic discrimination against women and girls.

Human rights organisations have documented a range of restrictive policies imposed by the group, including bans on girls’ education, restrictions on women’s employment, and crackdowns on freedom of expression, assembly and dissent.

The UK and other international actors continue to call for mechanisms to ensure that those responsible for rights violations in Afghanistan are held to account under international law.