Repatriated teen killed in Kabul blast

Death only days after being sent home by Sweden prompts call to stop deportations

KABUL // An Afghan teenager was killed in a bombing less than a week after being deported from Sweden, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

It called on European nations to halt repatriations because Kabul is not safe.

Criticism has mounted over the deportation of rejected asylum seekers from EU nations to wartorn Afghanistan after a recent wave of deadly bombings. The teenager who died was among 20 asylum seekers who Sweden sent back on May 30.

He was killed in a bombing on June 3 at funeral procession for a man killed in anti-government protests over rising insecurity in the Afghan capital.

“European countries have increasingly rejected the asylum claims of Afghans without denying their protection needs,” Human Rights Watch said.

“The idea that Kabul is considered ‘safe’ for Afghans has real repercussions Kabul is not safe.”

Kabul has been on edge since an enormous lorry bomb on May 31 killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds in the city’s heavily fortified diplomatic quarter.

It was the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001.

Only days later protesters incensed by the bombing clashed with police, prompting authorities to respond by firing live rounds, which resulted in the deaths of at least four people.

Suicide bombers hit a row of mourners at the funeral for one

‘ The idea that Kabul is considered ‘safe’ for Afghans has real repercussions Kabul is not safe Human Rights Watch

of the protesters, killing at least seven more people.

The carnage left the Afghan capital shaken, with protesters setting up a sit-in camp close to the bombing site and demanding the resignation of president Ashraf Ghani’s government.

The violence prompted Germany to temporarily suspend deportation of Afghans. “Other European countries should do the same,” Human Rights Watch said.

“It shouldn’t take any more deaths of deportees to dispel the myth that Kabul is a safe place of refuge.”

In February, 23-year-old Atiqul- lah Akbari suffered shrapnel injuries in a militant attack in Kabul, two weeks after he was deported from Germany, highlighting the perils of repatriation to the war-torn country.

Akbari was picked up by German police in January from his home in Bavaria where he had sought refuge.

Afghanistan is plagued by insecurity, poverty and unemployment, and is increasingly overwhelmed by people repatriated from Pakistan, Iran and Europe along with hundreds of thousands of others displaced by war.