CV NEWS FEED // Pakistani authorities have recently increased forced deportations of Afghan refugees — including large numbers of Afghan Christians — who are fleeing persecution by the Taliban.
“As Pakistan intensifies pressure on Afghans to return, the move threatens to unravel years of refuge for those fleeing one of the world’s most oppressive regimes,” International Christian Concern (ICC), a global humanitarian organization, stated in an emailed news release.
ICC was previously instrumental in relocating Afghan refugees to Pakistan for safety, working especially to rescue refugees since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
In the release ICC explained that Afghans, especially Christians, face a severe human rights crisis under the Taliban, amid widespread unemployment and lack of foreign aid or healthcare. According to ICC President Jeff King, the deportations are a “death sentence for Afghan Christians.”
“These refugees are being shoved back into a crucible of Taliban brutality, where faith in Christ is a crime punishable by torture or death,” he later stated in the news release. “The international community cannot stand by while this crisis unfolds — action is needed now to protect the persecuted.”
To that end, ICC and Human Rights Watch, which is another global humanitarian organization, are calling for Pakistan to stop the forced deportations and provide refuge for persecuted Afghans whose “basic rights — and lives — are at risk.” Human Rights Watch has also demanded that the Taliban stop its abuses of Afghans and issue identification to those who return to the country.
The post Pakistan increases deportations of Afghan Christian refugees fleeing Taliban appeared first on CatholicVote org.