Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, made the appeal during a visit to the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran on Tuesday where she witnessed the daily influx of tens of thousands of returnees.

She also met returnee families, aid partners and regional de facto officials.

Alarm bells should be ringing

“What should be a positive homecoming moment for families who fled conflict decades ago is instead marked by exhaustion, trauma, and profound uncertainty,” said Ms. Otunbayeva, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“The sheer volume of returns – many abrupt, many involuntary – should be setting off alarm bells across the global community,” she added.

“It is a test of our collective humanity. Afghanistan, already grappling with drought and a chronic humanitarian crisis, cannot absorb this shock alone.” 

Local communities overstretched

Since January, more than 1.3 million have been largely compelled to head back to Afghanistan – a country where 70 per cent of the population lives in poverty. 

Women and children face the gravest risks, UNAMA said, as they are returning not only to dire economic hardships but to a context where their access to basic services and social protections remains severely constrained.

The UN has repeatedly highlighted the assault on women’s rights under Taliban rule, including bans affecting higher education, employment and freedom of movement.

Reintegration support critical

The returns are happening at a time when humanitarian operations remain woefully underfunded, forcing agonising choices between food, shelter, and safe passage.

Ms. Otunbayeva also underscored the critical need for immediate reintegration assistance as initial evidence shows that stabilising return communities requires urgent livelihood programmes and community infrastructure investments. 

She warned that without swift interventions, remittance losses, labour market pressures, and cyclical migration will lead to devastating consequences.

These could include the further destabilization of both returnee and host populations, renewed displacement, mass onward movement, and risks to regional stability.

‘We cannot afford indifference’

She urged donors, development partners, and regional governments not to turn away and abandon Afghan returnees.

“What we are witnessing are the direct consequences of unmet global responsibilities,” she said. “We must act now – with resources, with coordination, and with resolve.” 

Meanwhile, the UN in Afghanistan is calling for an integrated approach that resources humanitarian needs while scaling up assistance in areas of return.

At the same time, regional dialogue – including with Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asian states – must be prioritized to halt disorderly returns and uphold the principle of voluntary, dignified and safe repatriation.

“Afghanistan’s stability hinges on shared responsibility: We cannot afford indifference,” said Ms. Otunbayeva. “The cost of inaction will be measured in lives lost and conflicts reignited.” 

Ongoing violence is compounding the country’s food crisis, disrupting local food production in critical areas such as the commune of Kenscoff and the Artibonite department, often considered the breadbaskets of Haiti.

While the UN and its partners are responding “wherever and whenever possible,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said this Wednesday that humanitarians have only been able to reach 38 per cent of the population they aim to support.

Multiple roadblocks

“This is due to ongoing violence and insecurity, severe underfunding of the response, and the obvious access challenges,” he said.

Over halfway through the year, Haiti is the least-funded of the many humanitarian appeals that the UN coordinates – despite shortfalls for food security in the country being at extreme levels – with just over two per cent of the $425 million needed this year received to date.

Myanmar: Intensifying conflict impedes humanitarian aid

Almost four months after Myanmar’s devastating earthquake, the UN is deeply concerned over the plight of civilians caught up in the country’s devastating and continuing conflict between the military regime and opposition armed groups.

As fighting intensifies, civilians are particularly vulnerable, with increasing attacks on infrastructure.

According to reports, an air strike hit a monastery in Sagan Township in Sagaing Region on 11 July, killing 22 people and injuring at least 50 others. The monastery had been providing shelter to displaced people who had fled nearby villages.

A displacement camp in North Shan State was also reportedly hit by an airstrike over the weekend.

‘Broader pattern’

“These incidents are part of a broader pattern of attacks affecting people across Myanmar,” said Mr. Dujarric, with frequent reports of people being killed, injured or displaced by violence.

Such insecurity also impacts the ability of humanitarian teams to reach people in need: with one in three people now facing acute hunger, and the current monsoon season having caused flooding, “the UN urgently calls on all parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian law,” he said.

Belarus: Rights experts urge probe into deaths in custody of opposition activists

Top independent human rights experts called on Belarus on Wednesday to launch urgent investigations into the deaths of several people jailed for political dissent.

The experts – who are known as Special Rapporteurs – highlighted the case of 61-year-old businessman Valiantsin Shtermer. He died in May 2025 while serving his sentence in a so-called “Correctional Colony” in Šklou.

Mr. Shtermer had been jailed for making critical remarks about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite his serious medical condition, he was allegedly denied adequate care in prison.

Fifty-year-old opposition activist Vitold Ashurak meanwhile, also died shortly after being placed in an isolation in the same prison.

According to the Special Rapporteurs, Mr. Ashurak was a member of the Belarusian National Front who was jailed for violating public order during protests related to the disputed 2020 presidential elections.

We must not ignore these deaths

“These deaths must not be ignored,” said the experts, who added that there were strong grounds to believe that they resulted from abuse or neglect linked to the exercise of fundamental rights.

“It is of the utmost importance to thoroughly investigate the alleged instances of ill-treatment and neglect that resulted in the deaths of Shtermer, Ashurak, Puškin and other persons designated as political prisoners by human rights defenders,” the Human Rights Council appointed experts underscored.

“There are strong reasons to believe that these individuals lost their lives in retaliation for exercising their civil and political rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”

The independent experts voiced concern that some opposition figures had been stigmatised and labelled as “extremists” or even “terrorists”.

Special Rapporteurs report regularly to the Human Rights Council. They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said there was no “vocabulary” left to adequately describe conditions on the ground.

“Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families. Field hospitals receive dead bodies, and medical workers hear stories firsthand from the injured – day after day after day,” he said.

Starvation rates among children reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.

“Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive.”

A classroom full of children, lost every day

UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell told ambassadors that an average of 28 children are killed in Gaza every day – “the equivalent of an entire classroom.”

Over the past 21 months, more than 17,000 children have been killed and 33,000 injured across Gaza.

Many of those children, she said, were struck “as they line up for lifesaving humanitarian aid – further proof that there is no safe place for civilians anywhere in Gaza.”

“Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them,” she added.

“And make no mistake, we have failed them.”

Critical infrastructure collapse

Gaza’s health system “is shattered,” Mr. Fletcher reported – only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary health centres are even partially functioning; shortages mean up to five babies share one incubator.

Seventy per cent of essential medicines are out of stock, half of all medical equipment is damaged, pregnant women are giving birth without care, women and girls manage their periods without basic supplies.

Meanwhile, water production capacity has plummeted leaving the entire enclave (95 per cent) facing water insecurity.

“With clean water increasingly difficult to access, children have little choice but to drink contaminated water,” Ms. Russell said, noting that this is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

Aid impeded, fuel at trickle levels

Mr. Fletcher further described the scale of challenges to moving something as simple as a bag of flour into Gaza.

He noted multiple layers of approvals that Israel requires, scanning, re‑loading, multiple handoffs, damaged roads, delays at holding points, insecurity and desperate civilians grabbing supplies off trucks.

Last week – after almost 130 days – some fuel entered Gaza, as Israeli authorities agreed to allow two trucks in per day, five days a week. However, petrol – fuel for ambulances and other critical services – has not been permitted.

Between 19 May and 14 July, just 1,633 aid trucks – about 62 per cent of loads submitted for clearance – entered Gaza, far below the average of 630 daily truckloads moved during the previous ceasefire, Mr. Fletcher said.

Appeals to Israel, Hamas – and the Council

Both officials pressed for immediate, safe, sustained, demilitarised humanitarian access through all available crossings, consistent fuel flows, protection of civilians at distribution points, and restoration of the UN‑led aid pipeline that briefly functioned during earlier pauses in fighting.

They also reiterated the UN’s call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza and called on all parties – including Hamas and other armed groups – to respect international humanitarian law.

Mr. Fletcher asked the Security Council to assess whether Israel, as the occupying power, is meeting its obligations to ensure food and medical supplies reach civilians.

“We hold all parties to the standards of international law in this conflict. We don’t have to choose – and in fact, we must not choose – between demanding the end to the starvation of civilians in Gaza and demanding the unconditional release of all the hostages,” he said.

“We must reject antisemitism – we must fight it with every fibre of our DNA. But we must also hold Israel to the same principles and laws as all other States.”