Human Rights Watch urges Taliban to release detained UN, NGO staff

Human Rights Watch called for the release of two ‌UN staffers and six NGO workers in Afghanistan following a string of Taliban detentions in recent weeks.

HRW said on Wednesday that six male staff working with the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF) had been "forcibly disappeared" from the NGO's Kabul ​office last month. The NGO has been involved in aid programmes and advocacy on women's ​and children's rights, HRW said.

In a separate incident, Human Rights Watch also called ⁠for the release of two Afghan staff members of the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who were ​detained by Taliban intelligence officials in the western city of Herat on Sunday.

The Taliban government's chief spokesman, ​Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters that he was "trying to gather details" about the recent detentions, but had "not received final clarity."

The UN confirmed the detention of two of its staffers earlier this week. "UNAMA has not been informed of the charges against them ​and has not been permitted to visit them," Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said ​in a briefing on Wednesday.

Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the detentions ‌of UNAMA ⁠staff threatened the UN's "ability to deliver lifesaving aid."
As the UN's political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA is involved in human rights monitoring and data gathering. Its reports have frequently been criticised by the Taliban government in the past.

The detentions became public only days before the Taliban celebrate the fifth anniversary of their return ​to power this Saturday.

Afghanistan ​remains reliant on international ⁠assistance that has increasingly dried up amid broader foreign aid cuts over the last few years, but aid groups have regularly blamed the Taliban for obstructing ​their work and hampering donor commitment to Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch said Taliban ​security forces raided ⁠the WCLRF office in Kabul on June 21, confiscating employees’ belongings and sealing the office, before questioning staff about their activities.

The organisation's leadership team of six male employees was detained one month later, on July 18, ⁠after Taliban ​authorities summoned them to the office, supposedly to collect their ​confiscated belongings, the rights group said.

The men's families have received no information about their whereabouts, health or any possible charges against ​them, Human Rights Watch said.

-Reuters