Taliban rule Situation in Afghanistan

UN: Taliban tortures returning citizens

People forced to return to Afghanistan after being thrown out of Iran and Pakistan have been routinely subjected to torture, according to a new UN report.

The Afghan authorities have officially promised amnesty for all those who left the country after the Taliban took power in 2021, but according to the UN report, they are not living up to it.

Among the testimonies in the UN report is a man who worked for the previous government who states that he was waterboarded, summarily executed and tortured with electric cables. Another is a non-binary person who claims to have been beaten with a rifle butt.

The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is also critical of Iran and Pakistan.

“No one should be sent back to a country where they risk persecution because of their identity or personal background,” he says in a statement.

Travel to Afghanistan is increasing – the Taliban are investing in tourism

Tourism to Afghanistan is increasing and the Taliban's Deputy Minister of Tourism Qudratullah Jamal is appealing to tourists to come and see "the true traditions and customs of the Afghans". This is reported by TT with reference to the AP.

- The Afghan people are warm and welcoming and want to host tourists from other countries and interact with them, he tells the AP news agency.

Since the Taliban took power in 2021, the economy has been bad and now they want to bring foreign currency into the country, among other things. Jamal believes that tourism brings hope and that it has many benefits for a country. Now Afghanistan aims to take full advantage of them.

In 2021, 700 foreign tourists visited the country, but by 2024 the number had risen to 9,000.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the country was a popular stop for backpackers traveling along the so-called “hippie trail.”