A top United Nations official has strongly denounced any attempts to link Pashtun ethnicity with Taliban allegiance, warning that such assumptions are discriminatory, inaccurate, and potentially dangerous.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, expressed concern on social media after a Swiss newspaper report suggested that Pashtun Afghan asylum seekers might be targeted for deportation. Writing on platform X, Bennett stated that conflating Pashtun identity with Taliban support or supposed safety under Taliban rule is “false, discriminatory, and harmful.”
His statement was prompted by a report in Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which claimed the Swiss migration office had explored deporting asylum seekers of Pashtun background following violent incidents involving Afghan nationals in Germany last year.
In response, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) denied the report and clarified to Afghanistan International that ethnic background plays no role in deportation decisions. “Such considerations have never been part of our policy,” SEM confirmed.
Still, the controversy has reignited concern among refugee advocates and rights organisations, who argue that ethnic profiling — even as an informal practice — undermines international law and endangers marginalised communities.
Bennett’s warning adds to growing calls for European governments to reject narratives that reduce complex ethnic identities to crude security labels, especially amid heightened migration anxieties.
As debates over asylum and deportation intensify across Europe, the UN expert’s message is clear: ethnicity must never be used as a shortcut for suspicion.
