Afghanistan is not safe for migrants to return to

As the EU is currently negotiating the prolongation of the Joint Way Forward (JWF) on migration issues with the government of Afghanistan, set to expire on 6 October 2020, Caritas Europa join efforts to condemn the disproportionate focus on returning and deporting Afghans from Europe, given the current security situation in Afghanistan.

The agreement aims to facilitate the deportation to Afghanistan of Afghans who came to Europe to seek protection. It is believed that the EU used the leverage of its development aid to pressure the Afghan government to sign this informal deal.

We are concerned that the EU’s disproportionate focus on returning and deporting Afghans from Europe will continue to shape the negotiations. Cooperation with Afghanistan on returns and broader migration management should not undermine the EU’s overall approach to Afghanistan which should go beyond a predominant focus on returns to acknowledge the complex dynamics of migration from Afghanistan and within the region, and should primarily address the underlying drivers of instability and violent conflict in Afghanistan.

The EU’s disproportionate focus on returns and deportations to Afghanistan is counter-productive and inhumane for the following reasons:

• The current security situation in Afghanistan is grave: the Global Peace Index ranked it the least peaceful country in the world for the second year in a row.
• Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries live in a protracted situation of displacement without certainty or integration prospects. There are around four million Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan, the majority of them live in a dire situation.
• Afghans, the second largest group by nationality of people seeking asylum in Europe in 2019, are subject to very different treatment across Europe, with the likelihood of protection needs being recognised varying drastically from country to country (protection rate ranges from 93.8% in Italy to 4.1% in Bulgaria).

In light of the current situation in Afghanistan and the uncertainty that Afghan asylum-seekers face in Europe, a disproportionate focus on increased returns to Afghanistan is ill-advised and dangerous.

This is why Caritas Europa joins NGOs, refugee-led organisations and members of the Afghan diaspora to call, among others, to halt forced returns to Afghanistan due to the security situation in the country and the challenge of reintegration for returnees from Europe and the neighbouring region.