Unemployment, poverty forces hundreds of Afghans to flee abroad

Poverty and high rates of unemployment in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule have been pushing the natives to flee the country and move abroad in order to find jobs for survival, TOLOnews reported.

The country’s citizens said that they are forced to migrate to find jobs abroad to feed their families, illegally. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the humanitarian crisis in the country has increased manifold. People are forced to live miserably under strict restrictions under the Taliban. Lamenting over the poor situation of the country and its economic slump, a resident of Herat, Abdul Khaliq said, “I have been deported 16 times since 1391 (solar year) up to now… we are vulnerable and struggling with problems and we need to go out.”

According to TOLOnews, Nadir, a resident of Baghlan, along with his family of five members, is seeking to illegally cross the border to Iran. “If a piece of bread could be found in Afghanistan, why would we go to other countries, why would we displace ourselves and go on this tough and dangerous path?” Nadir said.”My mother has become a cripple and I left school to earn some money to treat her,” said Tahir, son of Nadir.

However, Khalil Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister for refugees and repatriation, has claimed that human traffickers incite their victims to flee the nation. Since the Taliban-led government took control of power in Afghanistan, the group has been slammed for their suppression policy by several National and international organisations. They have asserted that it will promote poverty, unemployment, and extremism, harbouring terrorists and threatening global peace and security.