United Nations General Assembly on December 17, 1999, declared August 12 as World Youth Day, since then, Youth Day has been celebrated with the idea of “building a better world along with the youth”.
The United Nations has recognized the ages of 15 to 24 as the youth period and called people up to the age of 40 as young people.
According to the report of the National Bureau of Statistics and Information in 1401, the youth population percentage in Afghanistan is at the highest level and approximately 63% of the total population of the country are youth.
The reports also show that Afghan youth are struggling with problems such as unemployment, poverty, lack of access to education, drug addiction, migration and other social problems.
Unemployment and Poverty
Afghan youth have been struggling with unemployment for years and after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the number of unemployed youth has increased.
Experts call youth unemployment the basis of other problems adding that it will lead to migration, mental and emotional problems and even addiction. In addition, Islamic Emirate restrictions on women have also caused many young people to lose their jobs and add to the country’s unemployed population.
Ayesha Ahmadi is one of the young people who lost her job and currently continues her life struggling with a lot of problems.
She said in a conversation with Killid: “I worked in an organization and solved my financial problems with its salary but Now I am unemployed, I face a lot of problems in my life.”
Another young man, Idris Ebrahimi says there was an opportunity for young people to work in foreign organizations in the past but now there is no opportunity.
He says: “When young people graduated from university in the past, there were opportunities for them to work in institutions, but now there is no such opportunity.”
Although the rate of unemployment in Afghanistan has been increasing in recent years, it has worsened after the Kabul takeover by the Islamic Emirate.
According to the World Statistics Center, the unemployment rate reached 13.3% at the end of 2022, which shows an increase of almost one per cent compared to 2021.
This institution predicts that the unemployment rate in Afghanistan will increase to about 20% in 2023.
However, Islamic Emirate officials say that the government seeks to create job opportunities for young people through small and large projects.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate spokesman said in an exclusive interview with Killid: “We provide work opportunities for 150,000 people in the mining sector, for 5,000 people directly and for a number indirectly in the Qosh-Tepa channel, for 3,000 people in the machinery and for 50,000 people in factories.”
Also, Samiullah Ebrahimi, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs spokesperson says that providing work for the youth is the responsibility of this ministry and they will make efforts in this field: “The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is responsible for creating jobs, and we try to launch technical and vocational training programs for youth providing them job opportunities”.
Ebrahimi added that there are no accurate statistics on unemployed youth in the country and the ministry will continue its investigations to obtain accurate statistics.
Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration is another problem that some Afghan youth face.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report that Afghanistan has the most immigrants among the three countries in 2022. The Afghan immigrant population has increased from 2.9 million people to 5.7 million people, most of whom are young people.
Also, the International Organization for Migration announced in its latest report that in 2021 and 2022, 3 million and 600,000 Afghans (mostly youth), migrated to other countries. Iran and Pakistan host more than 8.2 million Afghans, of which 2.3 million are registered immigrants.
Experts say that young Afghans decide to leave their country due to poverty, unemployment and the lack of basic facilities such as standard education, health services, access to a suitable place to live, social welfare, etc. And the main factor of rising illegal immigration is economic problems.
Shabir Bashiri, an economic expert said to Killid: “Young people are not used as labour force in Afghanistan. They are hopeless about the future, and extreme poverty still makes them decide to migrate.”
Haroon Basir is an Afghan youth who left Afghanistan due to unemployment and other problems and currently lives in Iran.
He said: “I worked as a Journalist in the previous regime, after becoming unemployed and economic problems, I immigrated to Iran.”
Drug Addiction
Unemployment and poverty have led a number of youth to addiction.
Ahmadullah, a young man who was addicted to drugs in the past and is currently in one of the treatment centres for drug addicts, says that the problems in his life led him to addiction.
“Unemployment and economic problems caused me to become an addict, and now that I am in this situation, no one accepts me.”
According to the report of the United Nations Anti-narcotics Department, Afghanistan is still one of the largest producers of heroin and crystal in the world and has about four million addicts.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate officials issued a decree prohibiting the planting, smuggling and use of drugs on April 3, 2022, and asked the relevant institutions to deal with the violators according to Sharia law.
After that, the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior started the process of collecting and treating drug addicts, which continues til now.
Sharafat Zaman, the Ministry of Public Health spokesperson, says: “So far, we have treated 35,000 addicts. The Islamic Emirate pays special attention to the treatment of addicts and we are trying to treat all addicts”.
After treating drug addicts, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs provides them with vocational training”, according to the Ministry officials.
Education Problems
After the fall of Kabul to the Islamic Emirate in August 2021, girls’ schools above the sixth grade were closed until further notice, and universities were also closed to girls. It caused half of the Afghan young population deprived of education.
According to the information of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2.5 million Afghan girls are deprived of going to school and another 100,000 girls from university.
Soman Turki, a young girl deprived of school, says that all her dreams have been destroyed and she and the other girls have suffered from mental problems.
“Deprivation of girls from education has caused us to be in difficult situations and suffer from mental problems.”
Meanwhile, although boys are not banned from education, they are not satisfied with the quality of lessons in educational institutions.
Mehboobullah Mohed, a master’s degree student, says that the closure of schools and universities and the departure of professors abroad have caused a disruption of order in educational institutions.
“Unfortunately, the education condition in the country is not good, and the departure of professors abroad and the closing of schools and universities have caused educational institutions to go bankrupt and young people to be deprived of education.”
In the meantime, the ministries of education and higher education do not comment on the quality of lessons in educational institutions and the opening of universities and schools to girls.
This is while the senior officials of the Islamic Emirate have always said that these restrictions are not permanent and efforts are underway to provide a suitable environment and educational curriculum in accordance with Sharia.
Mental and Psychological Problems
Mental health specialists talk about the increase in the number of their clients, and statistics show that the number of young people, especially girls, with mental problems increases every day.
Husna Hosseini, a young girl who is struggling with mental problems, says that she got into this situation due to unemployment, deprivation of education and hopelessness about the future.
“When schools and universities were closed to us, we lost our hope and I think we have reached the end of the line, life become meaningless for us and we lost our way”.
Rasakh Arianfar, a psychologist, says that the number of young people suffering from mental problems is increasing and efforts should be made to solve this problem.
“Mental problems among young people, especially girls, are increasing. The reasons are unemployment, a ban on schools and universities for girls, family violence, forced marriages and a closed social atmosphere”.
However, some experts emphasize that in order to solve the youth problems, work, education and amusement opportunities should be paved.
Shabir Bashiri, an economic expert says: “The most important factor causing young people to leave their homeland illegally and even become addicted to drugs is poverty and unemployment. Unemployment and poverty must be eliminated.”
Experts call the youth the real capital of a nation and emphasize that the power of the youth should be used for the country’s development.
Translated by: Sadaf Yarmal
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