On Tuesday (March 25), an independent, bipartisan federal group recommended that the US administration resettle refugees and appoint Nigerian envoys to flee religious persecution and address religious freedom violations to appoint Nigerian envoys.
Released its 2025 annual report, the USCIRF, urged the administration to resettle persecuted refugees through the US refugee enrollment program, a program suspended by President Trump.
The USCIRF recommended that the administration resettle. It helped mitigate the crisis for 43.7 million refugees worldwide by recommending “refugees who fled the country with the worst forms of religious persecution through the US Refugee Hospitalization Program (USRAP) and other humanitarian programs.”
Irving the administration to designate Nigeria as a “country of special concern” to engage or tolerate “particularly serious” violations of religious freedom, the committee recommended the appointment of envoys for Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin.
The USCIRF also recommended that the administration immediately fill the ambassador’s posts for international religious freedom. He recommended the President’s special advisor on International Religious Freedom on National Security Council staff, among other things, envoys on human rights issues in North Korea.
The agency urged the administration to consider US policies for countries designated as CPCs, which have waived to maintain the consequential actions of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
“We will make appropriate policy changes to demonstrate meaningful outcomes and promote positive change, such as not lifting existing exemptions or issuing exemptions following future CPC designations or redesignations,” the report recommended.
In addition to recommending the redesignation of Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as 12 CPCS countries, the USCIRF has urged the designation of Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Vitnam.
The USCIRF recommended Azerbaijan, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey and Uzbekistan in its State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) for countries engaged or tolerated “serious” violations of religious freedom.
They also recommended redesignation as an entity of specific concerns (EPC): seven non-state actors: Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), Houthis, Islamic State Sahel (ISSP), Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) and ISWEST AFRIMAT NASR AL-ISLIMAT NASR (Jnim).
In Nigeria last year, federal and state governments have failed to respond to violent actions by non-state actors who have continued to tolerate attacks and justified violence on religious grounds, the report says. These actors include Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (also known as Jas, Boko Haram) and the Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP).
“Virtuous Muslim groups and some Fulani extremists have sought to impose a singular interpretation of Islam on individuals and communities in the field of operations, regardless of the religion or beliefs of these individuals or communities,” the report states. “Security forces have sometimes remained slow to respond to violence by these groups, resulting in the injury or death of members of targeted religious minority communities.”
According to a USCIRF report, Vietnam in 2024 was trying to regulate and control religious issues through state-sponsored religious groups.
“The authorities detained, arrested, imprisoned and tortured members of unrecognized religious communities who tried to operate independently of state control,” the body said.
The Vietnamese government continued to exercise its 2018 Confessions and Religion Act (LBR) and the Implementation Order to strictly govern religious issues, and in March 2024 Order 95/2023/ ND-CP came into effect, replacing two previous Implementation Acts.
“The new order allows authorities to request more financial records from religious groups and suspend religious activities due to unspecified and vaguely described “serious violations,” the report said. “As of December, the USCIRF’s Freedom of Religion or Confession (FORB) victim list includes more than 80 prisoners that the Vietnamese government has punished for its advocacy of religious activities or religious freedom.”
Those incarcerated included Y Krec Bya, a Montagnado Protestant missionary of the Independent Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ (CHECC), who was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
“Preacher Y Bum Bya was found dead in March after police summoned him to meet him after he was reportedly threatened and beat him,” the body reported. “In September, Dak Lak authorities detained evangelicals for their repeated refusal to join state-controlled churches, and in October publicly denounced more than 20 Montagnado Christians to pressure them to join registered churches.
Afghanistan in 2024 saw a continuous and significant decline in religious freedom under the Taliban’s de facto rules, the report said.
“The Taliban continued to enforce strict interpretations of Sharia around the country, directly affecting the freedom of religion for all Afghans, including those with different interpretations of Islam,” Uscirf said. “That dramatic religious decree continued to disproportionate women and girls as well as the remaining religious minorities of the country, including Ahmadiyah and Shiite Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians.”
Human rights advocates are increasingly warning of the devastating impact of Taliban control on these vulnerable communities, particularly through the “broad and systematic” use of physical and sexual violence, especially against women and children, and the “broad and systematic” use of arbitrary detention, torture and corporal punishment, the report says.
In August, the Ministry of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) issued a new “Moral Law” that expands and strengthens religious policies of all Afghans, including gender separation in public spaces. The law gives widespread authority to arrest and detain people who are perceived to violate Taliban religious orders, preventing women from speaking and singing outside the home.
“It strictly limits the rights of religious minorities by banning all ‘non-Islamic’ religious rituals and preventing relationships with “non-believers”, including Shiite Muslims and Christian communities,” Uscirf reported. “The law further criminalizes the wearing or “prevailing” of crosses, ties and other “non-Islamic” symbols. ”
Taliban authorities have resumed using the body and death penalty, following punishment for public humiliation such as public executions, eyelashes and whiplash, stone shaving, be-striking, and forced head shaving, the report says.
In India, attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise in 2024, the report said. Before the national elections in June, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, spread hatred rhetoric and disinformation towards Muslims and other religious minorities in order to gather political support.
“This rhetorical attack on religious minorities that continued after the election, including vigilante violence, targeted and arbitrary killings, and the dismantling of property and places of worship,” the report said. “The authorities continued to use anti-terrorism and financing laws, including the Anti-Illegal Act (UAPA) and the Foreign Contribution Rules Act (FCRA) to crack down on civil society organisations and to detain religious minorities, human rights advocates and members of journalists reporting religious freedom.”
The government also replaced the criminal law with new laws, leaving religious minorities more likely to be targeted if it deemed “in India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity at risk,” the report said.
