Afghan diaspora in the context of "Non-refoulement"

Afghans (Pashto: افغانان; Dari: افغان‌ها) are the citizens and nationals of Afghanistan, as well as their descendants in the Afghan diaspora. The country is made up of various ethnic groups, of which Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks are the largest. The three main languages spoken among the Afghan people are Dari (a variety of Persian), Pashto, and Uzbek. Historically, the term "Afghan" was a Pashtun ethnonym, but later came to refer to all people in the country, regardless of their ethnicity after the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan proposed by the King of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah.

The Afghan Tazkira (Dari: تذکره تابعیت; Pashto: د تابعیت تذکره) is an official national identity document issued to every citizen of Afghanistan, which includes the Afghan diaspora around the world.

The document is used to obtain an electronic Afghan identity card (e-Tazkira), which is valid for up to 10 years and required for many things such as employment, registering in school, operating a business, buying or renting a house, opening a bank account, sending or receiving money through Western Union, purchasing a SIM card, obtaining a passport, booking airline tickets, staying in hotels, etc. The documents serve as proof of identity and residency but more importantly Afghan nationality. Both the Tazkira certificate and e-Tazkira are issued by the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), which is headquartered in Kabul but has offices by the name of Asan Khedmat (Easy Services) in various provinces of Afghanistan.

Afghans in Iran are citizens of Afghanistan who are temporarily residing in Iran as refugees or asylum seekers. They form the largest percent of the Afghan diaspora. The first wave of Afghans crossed into Iran after the start of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979.

According to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were approximately three million Afghan citizens in Iran as of January 2023, most of whom were born and raised in Iran during the last four decades. They are under the care and protection of the UNHCR, and are provided time-limited legal status by Iran's Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs, without a path to obtain permanent residency. There are also about 600,000 Afghan tourists, travelers, merchants, exchanged students, regular or irregular migrant workers, and others. According to Hassan Kazemi Qomi, half of Iran's foreign investors are Afghans.

Islam in Austria is the largest minority religion in the country, practiced by 8.3% of the total population in 2021 according to the Statistics Austria. The majority of Muslims in Austria belong to the Sunni denomination. The first Muslims came to Austria during the 1960s as migrant workers from Turkey and Yugoslavia. There are communities of Arab and Afghan origin as well.

The Hazaras have long been the subject of persecution in Afghanistan, including enslavement during the 19th century and ethnic and religious persecution for hundreds of years. In the 20th and 21st centuries, they have also been the victims of massacres committed by the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Hazaras have been systemically killed and discriminated against socially, economically, and culturally with specific intent, argued by some to constitute genocide. The Hazaras primarily come from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.

During the reign of Amir Abdur Rahman (1880–1901), millions of Hazaras were massacred, expelled, and displaced. Half the population of Hazarajat was killed or fled to neighboring regions of Balochistan in British India and Khorasan in Iran. This led to Pashtuns and other ethnic groups occupying parts of Hazarajat.