Human rights groups call for explanation after Afghanistan deportations

12 human rights organisations, including Amnesty, Oxfam Novib and Save the Children, have asked junior justice minister Mark Harbers to explain why he sanctioned the deportation of a family with a child back to Afghanistan, against cabinet policy.

The family, including a child under the age of 18, had been in the Netherlands for a year before being sent back to Kabul on Saturday and is now in ‘great danger’, the organisations say.

Last month Harbers told parliament that ‘refugee requests from Afghan families with children who are minors will no longer be refused on the grounds that they can locate in another part of Afghanistan.’

The decision followed foreign affairs ministry recommendations on the security situation in Afghanistan.

The justice ministry told the Volkskrant that all claims for asylum are based on individual situations. The clause on exempting families on the grounds they can move to another part of Afghanistan will only apply if the family risks torture or prosecution, the spokesman.

The deportation was, therefore, ‘in line with current policy’.