Home secretary indicates Whitehall talks about returns programme, a move that would shock humanitarian groups
Shabana Mahmood has refused to rule out sending rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the Taliban-controlled country.
The home secretary said she is “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and EU countries about a returns programme for refused claimants. She also indicated that “additional conversations” about Afghan returns were happening inside Whitehall.
If a returns programme was brought in it would be a reversal of UK current policy, and would shock humanitarian groups.
The United Nations last month described Afghanistan as a “graveyard for human rights” that enforces “gender apartheid” using torture and corporal punishment.
