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Afghan National Dialogue

Statement of the Cologne National Dialogue Meeting on the Mistreatment of Afghan Refugees in Iran and Pakistanاعلامیه نشست گفتمان ملی ( ملی مرکه) در شهر کولنپه ایران او پاکستان کې له افغان مهاجرینو سره د ناوړه چلند په هکله

Date: 2025-07-19Location: Cologne, Germany

About the event

The statement notes that in recent years two neighbouring countries have, for political reasons and contrary to all human and international norms, mistreated Afghan refugees and trampled on their rights — refugees driven from their homeland by five decades of crises in which Afghanistan's neighbours themselves played a significant part.

With deep concern, the meeting condemned the mass forced expulsion of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan as a violation of human and Islamic principles, the long tradition of good neighbourliness and international law, citing credible reports that more than 1.9 million Afghan refugees were expelled in 2025 without legal or humane process, with over 43,000 people — including unaccompanied children and vulnerable women — returned to Afghanistan's borders in a single day, creating a humanitarian crisis in the border regions.

The statement calls on the international community, the United Nations and human rights bodies to prioritise practical, urgent support for Afghan refugees, increase emergency assistance, refrain from returning refugees to unsafe conditions, and closely monitor and report the mistreatment of Afghan refugees by neighbouring states.

It urges the governments of Iran and Pakistan to immediately halt forced deportations, to separate their treatment of refugees from their political manoeuvres, and to treat Afghans — who left their homeland only in search of life's basic necessities — in accordance with human and Islamic values and good neighbourliness.

It further calls on the ruling authorities in Afghanistan to provide security, basic services and genuine support for returnees, to refrain from any discriminatory or degrading treatment, and to remove the underlying causes — above all the lack of work and education — that force Afghans to leave their country; and it praises the selfless volunteers in border provinces welcoming returning refugees, calling on all compatriots, national traders and charities to join them.