Afghanistan's Taliban authorities have released two United Nations staff members who had been held for over a week in the western city of Herat, Herat being one of Afghanistan's largest urban centres near the border with Iran. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that the two men were freed on Thursday morning and appeared to be in good health, with charges against them reportedly dropped. No formal explanation for their arrest on 9 August was ever provided to the UN.

UNAMA said it had not been officially notified of the reasons for the detention and was continuing to engage with Taliban authorities to ensure "respect for the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, as well as the safety, security and freedom of movement" of UN and associated personnel across the country. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric welcomed the outcome, telling reporters in New York that the organisation was "just delighted" the two staff members had been released and faced no further legal proceedings.

The arrests came just days before the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's return to power on 15 August 2021, when the group seized Kabul as US and NATO forces completed their withdrawal after two decades of war. They form part of a broader pattern of detentions affecting humanitarian workers in the country. In June, several Afghan humanitarian staff linked to the UN in Herat were arrested on the grounds that their beards were insufficiently long under Taliban religious regulations. Around the same time, dozens of women — including a healthcare worker with Médecins Sans Frontières — were detained by the morality police for alleged violations of strict dress codes. Human Rights Watch also reported last week that six staff of a local organisation working on women's and children's rights had been "forcibly disappeared" for more than a month.

These incidents highlight the increasingly precarious conditions under which international agencies are operating in Afghanistan. UNAMA has lost 35 percent of its staff since the Taliban takeover and now has fewer than 800 personnel in the country. Women who are UN employees are not permitted to enter UN premises — a reflection of the Taliban's sweeping restrictions on women, which include bans on secondary and university education, near-total exclusion from employment, and the removal of minimum-age protections for marriage. Afghanistan is also grappling with severe cuts to international aid and managing the return of millions of citizens expelled from Iran and Pakistan in recent years. The UN's continued presence, though constrained, remains a critical lifeline for humanitarian assistance across the country.