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KABUL: The United Nations said Thursday that it has suspended its assistance to Afghans returning from neighboring countries after the Taliban government prevented women staff members from working.
“On 9 September, in light of instructions from the de facto authorities preventing Afghan female staff from working, UNHCR was compelled to halt activities at its encashment centers across Afghanistan,” the UN’s refugee agency said.
It explained that these are places where Afghans returning from Pakistan and Iran receive money and other support.
The UN said in a separate statement that its women employees had been prevented from accessing their workplaces in several locations across the country this week.
“Security forces are visibly present at the entrances of UN premises in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif to enforce the restriction. This is particularly concerning in view of continuing restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls,” the statement said.
The Taliban authorities have been back in power for four years in Afghanistan after ousting a US-backed government, and have drawn international criticism for their human rights record, particularly the treatment of women.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in July for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity over the persecution of women and girls, who are banned from most education and work.
Women and girls are also barred from parks and gyms, and from traveling without a male guardian.
The UN said it was ending its support for returnees due to operational concerns. For cultural reasons it needs female employees to interview the many women returning from neighboring countries.
The organization said it is holding discussions with the Taliban government in hopes of getting its female staff back to work.
Pakistan has hosted Afghans fleeing violence for more than four decades, from the Soviet invasion to the 2021 Taliban takeover.
However Pakistan’s government, citing an uptick in violent attacks and insurgent campaigns, launched a crackdown in 2023 to evict them, painting the population as “terrorists and criminals.”
More than 2.1 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
They join earlier rounds of mass expulsions from the neighboring countries, deported or driven out by fear of arrest.

THE HAGUE: The defense lawyer for Rodrigo Duterte Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to shelve its crimes against humanity case against the former Philippines president, who he said was mentally unfit for trial.
Duterte, 80, was scheduled to appear at the ICC on September 23 to hear charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands.
The ICC ruled earlier this week to adjourn that hearing while judges assessed Duterte’s health, but lawyer Nicholas Kaufman urged the case be shelved indefinitely.
Duterte “is not fit to stand trial as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains,” wrote Kaufman in a legal filing published Thursday on the ICC website.
“Mr Duterte’s condition will not improve and, for this reason, the Pre-Trial Chamber must adjourn all legal proceedings in his case indefinitely,” he added.
The former leader is suffering from “significant cognitive deficiencies” affecting his memory, his day-to-day functioning, and his capacity for complex reasoning, according to Kaufman.
Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC’s detention unit at Scheveningen Prison since.
At his initial hearing, he followed by video link, appearing dazed and frail, barely speaking.
He is the first Asian former head of state charged by the ICC. He stands accused of 43 murders as a crime against humanity.
The ICC prosecutor’s application for his arrest said Duterte’s alleged crimes were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population” in the Philippines.
“Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated,” the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
Kaufman said his client’s mental faculties had declined to the point where he was unable to understand the accusations against him or defend himself in court.
A lawyer for victims of Duterte’s “war on drugs” has voiced anger over the ICC’s postponement of the hearing originally scheduled for September 23.
“We expected that Duterte would do this, but the fact that he was able to convince the pre-trial chamber to postpone that indefinitely is scary,” Kristina Conti told AFP.