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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (25 August 2022)

Michael Scollon

An ominous message was sent to Afghan refugees in Tajikistan this week, warning members of the some 10,000-strong community that they risk being forcibly sent back to face the persecution and violence they fled.

"They [the Tajik authorities] told us that they would take us to Dushanbe, but they took us directly to the border," an Afghan woman who claimed she had been expelled to Afghanistan said in a voice recording obtained by RFE/RL's Tajik Service this week. "Everyone, if someone from your family is working, don't let him go to work. Do not walk around Dushanbe," she added in a stark warning to fellow refugees in the Tajik capital.

RFE/RL was unable to independently verify the claims made in the anonymous recording. But since the warning emerged on a WhatsApp channel dedicated to Afghan nationals living in Tajikistan on August 22, well-placed sources and relatives of refugees have said that at least nine Afghans were forcibly sent back to Afghanistan in the past week.

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