A leading human rights group has criticised the UN's policy of promoting the voluntary repatriation of refugees to Afghanistan.

UNHCR has admitted conditions are unsafe in parts of Afghanistan. So why advocate for refugees to return now?

Rachael Reilly Human Rights Watch

New York-based Human Rights Watch says that the UN should reverse its policy because conditions on the ground inside Afghanistan are still "extremely unstable."

Last week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees issued a statement saying governments hosting Afghan refugees should offer incentives for them to return.

Large numbers of Afghans took refuge in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran as well as other countries during the long years of civil war and, more recently, because of the drought in their country.

But many started to go back after the fall of the Taleban last year.

'Unstable' conditions

Human Rights Watch says that the UNHCR is sending out the message that conditions in Afghanistan are sufficiently stable for a large-scale return.

Many Afghans have already made the journey

"This is contradicted by conditions on the ground, " says Rachael Reilly, the group's refugee policy director.

She says the risk of persecution still exists for some ethnic groups.

She also points to a security vacuum in the north due to continuing rivalry between warlords in the area.

Ms Reilly said the UNHCR itself had already admitted that conditions were unsafe in parts of Afghanistan.

She added that there were serious doubts about whether humanitarian agencies had the funding and resources to cope with the large numbers of returnees the UNHCR was promoting.

In its statement last week, the UNHCR said that Afghanistan had entered a "new political phase" and the time was now "ripe" for Afghans to go home.

More than a million Afghan refugees have gone home from Pakistan alone this year.