Not only war but poverty, insecurity, unemployment and a lack of faith in the government have forced Afghans to migrate.
Jawed Kohistani says Afghan youth willingly put their lives on line, and make the risky, illegal journey to Europe and countries in other developed parts of the world.
Contrary to expectations more Afghans are leaving than returning to the country. The Ministry of Refugees and Returnees says that roughly 2,000 people have been voluntarily repatriated from Iran and Pakistan between January and March this year.
Pakistan has taken to deporting undocumented Afghan nationals. Islamudin Jurat, spokesperson for the refugees’ ministry, estimates one million refugees will return by the end of the year.
He adds that the UNHCR, which used to give 400 USD to every returnee last year, has halved that amount in order to meet the projected figure this year. “We had one million and one hundred thousand returnees as most of them were from Iran and Pakistan,” says Jurat.
The UNHCR is assisted by IOM (International Organisation of Migration) that helps returnees who do not have legal documents. Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has allocated 171 million Afs (2.4 million USD) for returnees. “Every returnee receives 70 USD this year,” says Jurat.
There are up to 17 national and international organisations assisting returnees entering the country through Spinboldak, Torkham, Islamqala and Milak of Nimroz province. The authorities in the ministry claim some 32 townships in 27 provinces have been established since 2007 to accommodate refugees and returnees. Each township can shelter between 4,000 and 6,000 people.
Moreover, according to the ministry, the national unity government has handed over the task of township building in the north of Kabul to the Land Reforms Authority. The latter has made township plans for an estimated 30,000 plots. Construction started this year.
Illegal migrants
A quarter of the roughly one million migrants who have entered Europe are Afghans, according to a report published in early 2017. European countries have tightened laws to make it even harder for migrants but that has not stopped people fleeing conflict and economic crises.
The Afghan government has been in talks with European governments over the fate of their illegal nationals. Hafiz Ahmad Miakhil who is the press advisor in the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees says that Europe wanted to expel 80,000 Afghans urgently but following negotiations with the Afghan government the number has come down to 54,000.
In addition, with the spread of conflict to nearly every province in Afghanistan, and escalation of bloody suicide attacks in Kabul, the German government has stopped the forced expulsion of Afghans except in exceptional cases.
Afghanistan has a serious problem of internally displaced peoples (IDPs). The latest figures from the UN shows 47,404 people from 22 provinces have been displaced since the start of 2017. Of this 58 percent are children, who are deprived of access to education in their new homes.
There is concern that the number of IDPs could touch 450,000 by the end of the year.
A report by SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) had estimated 660,000 Afghans were uprooted in 2016.
The office to counter natural disasters estimates a sixth of IDPs were rendered homeless by natural disasters. The government and the UN have sought international assistance to deal with the problems of IDPs but the response has been poor.
Since March this year, some 28,000 families have been displaced by war, violence and insecurity mostly from provinces like Baghlan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Helmand, Uruzgan and Sar-e-Pol. Roughly 9,213 families have returned to their homes.
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