Refugees and asylum seekers subjected to human rights abuses

Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries and further afield continue to suffer human rights violations, rights advocates warned the Afghan government on Wednesday. Their concerns follow recent reports that Greek police officers allegedly tortured a group of some 40 Afghan asylum-seekers, including at least 17 Afghans aged 15 to 17. The torture reportedly included severe beatings and death threats, taking place over several days in mid-December, according to Amnesty International (AI). "The human rights violations of Afghan refugees outside the country continue to be a matter of concern. We have called on the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to look after this issue through their channels," Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. The commission emphasised that the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees from various countries and a cessation of their refugee status was contrary to international refugee protection standards. According to Nadery, under international standards for returnees' protection, Afghanistan was still not a secure place for return. "The major concern is not only their safety in terms of security but also their food and shelter security," adding that the post-conflict Afghan government was not able to provide enough jobs and health care, while housing continued to pose a major problem for returnees. The rights advocate said incidents reported included the harassment of refugees by police and other authorities, mainly in Iran and Pakistan, the issue of the reunification of refugees with their families in Australia, the status of Afghan asylum seekers on the Pacific island of Nauru, as well as the alleged beating and torture of Afghan refugees by Greece police. Meanwhile, the Afghan Commission for Human Rights (ACHR) told IRIN that hundreds of Afghan refugees in some Central Asian countries, as well as Russia, were tortured by police, with some falling victim to mafia gangs. "Unfortunately we continue to see Afghans severely harassed by police and mafia bands in Central Asia as they take this route to go to Europe," Lal Gul, ACHR's chairman told IRIN. In Russia there were two problems. Firstly, the unclear fate of thousands of Afghan refugees who lacked proper support and status, while the other was the plight of Afghans that had lived there earlier as students during the time of the Soviet Union, he explained, only to fall victim to drugs or harassment by the authorities later on. "They were children when they were sent to Russia. Now they have lost track of their families in Afghanistan and also their mother language. The have no clear destiny since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Gul noted. Abdul Ghafour Basim, another rights advocate, told IRIN from the northeastern city of Pul-e-Khumri that the rate of torture and even murder of Afghans by police and mafia was high in Russia, adding that his own son had been killed by the Russian police while attempting to defend the rights of Afghan refugees. "Abdul Hamid Basim, 38, was killed on 2 October by police in Leningrad. Investigations showed he was severely beaten and tortured after he was arrested," said Basim, responsible for the Afghan Organisation of Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP) northeastern sub office. The activist said his son was the seventh Afghan killed by Russian police and mafia groups in 2004. Gul said ACHR had information that hundreds of Afghans were in custody in Asian, European and Gulf states. "For example, more than 45 percent of the Afghans in Pakistan prisons are children and women who have fallen victim of drug mafias due to poverty and problems of life in exile," Gul said. But nearly three years after the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime, conditions in Afghanistan still do not allow for the return of millions of Afghans still residing outside the country. While more than three million Afghan refugees have returned home from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran since then, millions remain in exile, citing a lack of security, law and order, as well as poverty due to a persistent drought.