Buniad Omed from Ghazni province has two masters degrees but has not found a job for the last two years.
He blames the government for looking the other way while a system of handing over jobs depending on your political affiliation thrives.
“Anyone who wants a job should be committed to a political team, and involved in the government, so they can be introduced to offices. Merit does not count,” he says.
It is not as if the jobs are not advertised. Omed has applied in “hundreds of places, filled the forms, passed exams … Unfortunately I am in a limbo, and I am seriously concerned about my dark and bleak future.”
He claims he passed an exam for a government post. “I got the highest marks but eventually the job was given to a person who was just a high school graduate.”
Omed is contemplating going abroad in search of work, in all likelihood as an illegal migrant, the fate of millions of Afghan youth. Afghans were among the second largest group of illegal migrants in Europe after people escaping war in Syria.
Head of Afghanistan Labour Union Maroof Qaderi sees the long-term crisis of joblessness as damaging to the government. Lack of opportunities could force young people to join anti-government armed groups or turn to drug addiction as an escape from reality. “People had hoped for a secure life in Afghanistan with the presence of international troops and aid, which would provide jobs to them, but hopes have faded,” Qaderi says. “Instead young people have fled Afghanistan, but now they are being expelled from countries they had hoped to make a life in. The risk that the jobless youth would join insurgent groups or become addicted to narcotics is ever strong.”
He thinks Afghanistan could have created millions of jobs in mining, agriculture, construction, the private sector and energy sectors. Ambitious plans have all been run into the ground.
The government had also promised bilateral agreements with countries in the Gulf for the export of Afghan labour. “There were rumours for four years that we are sending labour to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries but the promises yielded little,” says Qaderi.