Young Afghans Seek Better Lives Abroad

Rising numbers of young Afghans have been seeking work abroad since NATO-led forces withdrew from the country, according to speakers at IWPR debates.

Events held in Khost, Nangarhar, Zabul and Farah provinces last month heard that unemployment had risen following last year’s exit of combat forces. The national unity government formed by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had failed to create enough new jobs to fill the gap, they said.

In Khost province in the southeast, regional council member Nur Shah Nurani said that young people were seeking better lives in Europe because their leaders were not living up to assurances made during last year’s presidential election campaign.

“President Ashraf Ghani promised to provide a million young people with job opportunities,” Nurani said. “Chief executive Abdullah Abdullah also made promises to create jobs, but the situation has only got worse. Administrative corruption, violence, nepotism and injustice have ruined all opportunities for our young people.”

Rasul Zargul, the head of education in Khost’s Ismail Khel district, criticised the government for its lack of strategic planning. He said that young people had lost all hope in their future and thought their only chance of earning a living lay in reaching Europe.

“The national unity government has not presented any plans so far that would create job opportunities for our youth,” Zargul said.

In the eastern Nangarhar province, writer and journalist Mohammad Asif Shinwari said the reasons were more complex.

“The migration of Afghan youth to foreign countries has three basic causes – the ongoing 40-year war, unemployment and an uncertain future, which force our young people to risk death by seeking work abroad,” he said.

Ewaz Khan Basharat, acting head of refugee affairs in Nangarhar, said, “An average of 6,000 young people leave the country by legal means through the Torkham crossing on the border with Pakistan every month.”

Tens of thousands of Afghans are thought to seek work illegally elsewhere in the region or try their luck reaching Europe.

In the southern Zabul province, the head of the information and culture department, Abdul Muqim Afghan, agreed that the number of citizens going to foreign countries had increased, and the main reason was unemployment and a lack of security, he added.

“When foreign forces were deployed in the provinces, thousands of young people worked with them. Problems increased after they left, and people were left unemployed,” he said.

Afghan said this situation could have been avoided if the government had devised new infrastructur projects and created educational opportunities.

Zarmina Patani, deputy head of a local NGO called the Sisters’ Movement NGO, said that “educated young people now have no greater chance of finding work in this country than those who are illiterate”. She added that other factors such as the prohibitive cost of getting married encouraged young men to leave Afghanistan and seek work abroad.

In Farah province, Mohammad Akbar Anwari, head of children’s affairs at the department of labour and social affairs, agreed that emigration had increased.

“Many of our young people were suddenly left without jobs after foreign aid organisations left and so they were forced to migrate,” he said.

But provincial council member Abdul Samad Salehi warned that the Kabul government could not transform the situation on its own.

“It is unrealistic to expect the national unity government to resolve all the country’s problems, as it is still new and it is facing major issues,” he said. “It is necessary for us to take action and address the problems we have in this country ourselves, as well.”

This report is based on an ongoing series of debates conducted as part of IWPR’s Afghan Youth and Elections programme.