- Introduction
- Guidance note
- Common analysis
- 1. Actors of persecution or serious harm
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2. Refugee status
- Preliminary remarks
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Analysis of particular profiles
- 2.1. Members of the security forces and pro-government militias
- 2.2. Government officials, including judges, prosecutors and judicial staff; and those perceived as supporting the government
- 2.3. Individuals working for foreign military troops or perceived as supporting them
- 2.4. Religious leaders
- 2.5. Members of insurgent groups and civilians perceived as supporting them
- 2.6. Persons fearing forced recruitment by armed groups
- 2.7. Educational personnel
- 2.8. Humanitarian workers and healthcare professionals
- 2.9. Journalists, media workers and human rights defenders
- 2.10. Children
- 2.11. Women
- 2.12. Individuals perceived to have transgressed moral codes
- 2.13. Individuals perceived as ‘Westernised’
- 2.14. LGBTIQ persons
- 2.15. Persons living with disabilities and persons with severe medical issues
- 2.16. Individuals considered to have committed blasphemy and/or apostasy
- 2.17. Ethnic and religious minorities
- 2.18. Individuals involved in blood feuds and land disputes
- 2.19. Individuals accused of ordinary crimes
- 2.20. Individuals who were born in Iran or Pakistan and/or who lived there for a long period of time
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3. Subsidiary protection
- 3.1. Article 15(a) QD
- 3.2. Article 15(b) QD
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3.3. Article 15(c) QD
- 3.3.1. Preliminary remarks
- 3.3.2. Armed conflict (international or internal)
- 3.3.3. Qualification of a person as a ‘civilian’
- 3.3.4. Indiscriminate violence
- 3.3.5. Serious and individual threat
- 3.3.6. Qualification of the harm as ‘threat to (a civilian’s) life or person
- 3.3.7. Nexus/’by reason of’
- 4. Actors of protection
- 5. Internal protection alternative
- 6. Exclusion
- Abbreviations and glossary
- Country of origin information references
- Relevant case law
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Please note that this country guidance document has been replaced by a more recent one. The latest versions of country guidance documents are available at https://easo.europa.eu/country-guidance. |
In the context of Afghanistan, widespread criminality and breakdown in law and order make the ground of ‘serious (non-political) crime’ particularly relevant. In addition to murder related to family and other private disputes, some examples of particularly relevant serious crimes may include drug trade and trafficking, trafficking in arms, human trafficking, corruption, embezzlement and other economic crimes, illegal taxation, illegal extraction, trade or smuggling of minerals, gemstones, archaeological artefacts, etc.
Violence against women and children (for example, in relation to bacha bazi, in the context of child marriage, honour killings, sexual violence or some forms of domestic violence, etc.), which is widespread in Afghanistan, could also potentially amount to a serious (non-political) crime.
Some serious (non-political) crimes could be linked to an armed conflict (e.g. if they are committed in order to finance the activities of armed groups) or could amount to fundamentally inhumane acts committed as a part of a systematic or widespread attack against a civilian population, in which case they should instead be examined under Article 12(2)(a)/Article 17(1)(a) QD.
In relation to exclusion from refugee status, a crime could fall under this ground if committed in Afghanistan or any third country (for example, while the applicant resided in Pakistan or Iran, or in countries of transit, etc.). In relation to subsidiary protection, serious crimes committed by Afghan applicants in the host country, would also lead to exclusion.