Afghan refugees continue to face immense challenges, whether they are inside the country or abroad. Are the responses from Australia and other countries meeting the moment?
On 15 August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul, and within days their take-over of Afghanistan was complete. Since that day, more Afghans have fled their homes, extending, complicating and worsening one of the ‘largest and longest’ displacement situations in recent memory.
On the three-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul, people continue to be displaced both within and out of Afghanistan, while refugees who previously fled the country due to persecution face immense challenges in finding stability, resettlement and asylum. Nations around the world – including Australia – have recognised the severity of the crisis and responded with special humanitarian measures for Afghan refugees. Despite these efforts, however, the plight of those forced to flee from Afghanistan remains a real and urgent issue that will persist in coming years.
Afghans currently comprise the largest refugee population globally, with more than 6.4 million Afghans displaced in other countries as of 31 December 2023. Almost all are located in the neighbouring countries of Iran (3.8 million) and Pakistan (2 million), with just these two countries together hosting about 90% of all Afghan refugees or Afghan nationals in what UNHCR calls ‘refugee-like situations’. As a result, Iran and Pakistan are host to some of the largest refugee populations in the world.
Many more people remain internally displaced within Afghanistan, bringing the total number of displaced Afghans to nearly 10.9 million people.
Afghan people continue to face immense challenges at home.
The UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Children has called the systemic and continuous restriction of the rights of women and girls by the Taliban ‘gender apartheid’. The latest report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation for human rights in Afghanistan confirms that women and girls are excluded from secondary or tertiary education, cannot hold paid employment, and, in many situations, must be accompanied by a mahram (male escort) when venturing into public spaces. As put by the Special Rapporteur:
'In no other country have women and girls so rapidly disappeared from all spheres of public life, nor are they as disadvantaged in every aspect of their lives.’
Human Rights Watch has reported that LGBTQI individuals and communities also face persecution within Afghanistan and have been subject to extreme violence, discrimination and the death penalty. Journalists and human rights defenders have been recognised by the Special Rapporteur as facing an increased risk of arbitrary detention. The Special Rapporteur has also reported that minority communities such as the Hazaras have been subject to discrimination, marginalisation and extreme violence, including ‘widespread and systematic’ attacks that bear the hallmarks of international crimes.
Furthermore, UNHCR has warned that the country confronts a severe economic and humanitarian crisis, worsened by post-conflict instability and disasters. Food insecurity, malnutrition and economic decline are key issues, with approximately half of the Afghan population facing acute food insecurity in 2024.
Outside of Afghanistan, too, refugees face uncertainty and challenges in securing protection. In October 2023, for example, Pakistan announced an ‘Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan’, pursuant to which all foreign nationals without a valid visa would be required to leave the country by 1 November 2023 or face deportation. Following the announcement, more than 639,000 individuals returned to Afghanistan by the end of June 2024.
UNHCR warned that the Plan would result in worsening economic and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan itself. A group of UN experts also raised concerns that the Plan violates the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, which prevents Pakistan from returning or removing someone to a place where they will be persecuted or face real risks of other serious harm. Similar concerns are also reflected in UNHCR’s 2023 Guidance Note on the Protection Needs of People Fleeing Afghanistan, which calls for countries to ‘ensure respect for the principle of non-refoulement at all times’.
In July 2024, the Government of Pakistan agreed to extend the Proof of Registration cards of more than 1.45 million Afghan refugees for one year, effectively suspending their deportation. This move was welcomed by UNHCR, but Afghans who are undocumented or do not hold these cards remain subject to the Plan, and registered Afghans also face the prospect of deportation next year.
The Australian Government has acknowledged that the situation is ‘a distressing time for many people in Afghanistan and here in Australia’. It has confirmed that it is prioritising Afghans under the humanitarian visa program and has designated the plight of Afghans being forced out of Pakistan in particular as a ‘high priority’. At the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023, Australia committed $20 million to supporting people displaced within Afghanistan and into neighbouring countries, such as Pakistan.
The Australian Government has also allocated 16,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans over four years (4,125 places per year to 2026), in addition to the existing 10,000 places allocated to Afghan nationals within the offshore Humanitarian Program (for people applying for protection from outside of Australia) from 2021-22 to 2024-25. Applications have already far exceeded the number of visa places available.
Priority for visa places is given to people outside Afghanistan who are:
certified former Locally Engaged Employees (Afghan nationals who assisted the Australian Government during the Afghanistan War) and their immediate family members;
immediate family members of holders of Australian Refugee and Humanitarian visas;
refugees who have been referred by UNHCR to Australia for resettlement; and
women and girls, ethnic minorities, LGBTQI+ and other identified minority groups.
Afghan was the top nationality for people granted visas in the offshore component of Australia’s humanitarian program in 2021-22 and 2022-23. In the onshore component, Afghan nationals were the fourth- and sixth-highest numbered intakes in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively.
Despite Afghans being a priority, processing times for all offshore visa applications vary and remain uncertain. A further complicating factor is that the Australian Government is collecting the biometrics required for visa applications only in Iran and Pakistan, and not in Afghanistan.
Other countries have also enacted special responses to ongoing displacement within and from Afghanistan. Importantly, since December 2022, Sweden and Finland have recognised all asylum-seeking Afghan women and girls as refugees fleeing from gender-based persecution. Both countries have granted refugee permits to this group, with Sweden also permitting the review of older applications. Since February 2023, Denmark has also granted asylum to all women and girls from Afghanistan based on gender, and re-opened applications from Afghan females that were rejected between August 2021 and February 2023.
The policies of Sweden, Finland and Denmark are welcome recognition of the fact that the plight of women and girls seeking to flee Afghanistan is particularly dire. Other European countries, such as Switzerland, have begun to follow suit.
Listen to Kaldor Centre podcast ‘The day the Taliban overtook Kabul: An interview with Ahmad Shuja Jamal’, from 15 August 2023.
For more information, visit the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.