Shabana Mahmood has refused to rule out sending rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the Taliban-controlled country. The home secretary said she is “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and EU countries about a returns programme for refused claimants. She also indicated that “additional conversations” about Afghan returns were happening inside Whitehall. If a returns programme was brought in it would be a reversal of UK current policy, and would shock humanitarian groups. The United Nations last month described Afghanistan as a “graveyard for human rights” that enforces “gender apartheid” using torture and corporal punishment. Women and girls aged over 11 are excluded from education and banned from most forms of paid employment. Under rules in place in the UK, the government is unable to return refused asylum seekers to Afghanistan because the UK does not recognise the Taliban-led government.…