The EU efforts to repatriate Afghan asylum seekers are dangerous

It is still not safe for Afghan refugees and asylum seekers to return home.

Currently, there are around 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees across the globe. In 2020, Afghan refugees were the second largest group of asylum seekers in continental Europe, having fled Afghanistan for a variety of reasons including persecution, conflict, economic hardship, and climate induced displacement. Each person has a different reason, in many cases multiple reasons, for leaving in search of safety. In late 2020, the European Union and the government of Afghanistan entered into negotiations to extend the “Joint Way Forward” – an informal agreement they signed in 2016 to facilitate the repatriation of Afghans who came to Europe to seek protection. The deal, which essentially ties aid for Afghanistan to assurances that it would streamline the return of Afghans whose asylum claims were rejected in Europe, has been controversial since its inception. Countless human rights organisations, refugee advocates and migration experts insisted since the beginning that the Joint Way Forward would only result in vulnerable people being returned to a volatile and increasingly hostile environment.