As They Move — Child and Youth Experiences of Migration, Displacement and Return in Afghanistan
Drawing on interviews with children and young people who left Afghanistan and returned, either forcibly or voluntarily since 2021, this blog post presents some poignant narratives about Afghan children’s journeys: their experiences of return, the support they need and their hopes for the future.
By Samuel Hall and UNICEF Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight
T hree years ago, Rafiullah*, then 16 years old, had to discontinue his education when his father lost his job. Rafiullah faced the harsh reality of poverty when his father’s unemployment made it impossible to cover daily household expenses, forcing him to make a challenging choice.
“I left with my friends and the neighbour’s son in pursuit of job opportunities in Iran,” he said.
Like Rafiullah, tens of thousands of children are forced to leave Afghanistan, often through irregular means, given the lack of regular and labour migration opportunities. They leave due to economic and political instability, or to escape the harmful impacts of insecurity and the legacies of war.
Many parents assist their children in the migration process in the hope that they can become self-sufficient and earn money for the family, despite being aware of the risks involved. This is because families view migration as the only real way to address their challenges.
What has happened to the tens of thoughts of children who either departed Afghanistan or were internally displaced? What happens to those who are compelled to return? The latest study conducted by UNICEF Innocenti in partnership with Samuel Hall answers some of these questions.
When They Move — A Spiral of Harm and Neglect
The journey out of Afghanistan carries significant risks for children. Although migration can be a coping mechanism for households in times of conflict and insecurity, the process also exposes children to the risk of abuse, including coercive trafficking and child labour to pay back accumulated debts.
Reihana,* an 18-year-old young woman living in Kabul described how she and the rest of her family (parents and nine siblings) had paid a smuggler to take them to Iran. They sold everything they owned to pay the fee. The journey took more than eight days, and they were given very little food and had to walk long distances. When they arrived in Iran, they stayed with relatives but remained hidden to avoid arrest. Her father finally found some work as a labourer, but five months later was arrested, and the family, except for one of her brothers who managed to hide, was deported. They are now back in Kabul, living in one room with no kitchen or bathroom.
She said, "When we arrived in Kabul, we did not even have the basic necessities like something to eat. Our neighbours and kin assisted us with food, cash and household utensils. Now, my father is jobless and ill. After four months, my brother was also arrested and deported back to Afghanistan. He was our family’s only source of income. My father is a drug addict, and his health is dire now. He coughs too much, and his liver has a problem. Also, he feels pain in his feet. My brother works as a car cleaner, earning 150 AFN (roughly 2 USD) a day. My two younger sisters are begging on the street since we are in a dire situation. … We are angry and sad because we lost everything and spent all of our savings.”
Returning people to places and situations they left will generate a new cycle of vulnerability and despair. The despair is also caused by the fact that many return to the same situation of insecurity, instability and crises which pushed them to leave in the first place.
Finding work opportunities, in a neighbouring country — primarily in Iran and Pakistan — can in reality lead to more challenges for these children and their families. Without proper documentation, the jobs they find do not provide social protection or work rights. If the authorities catch them without proper documentation, they are often treated as criminals instead of migrants in need of international protection; and are routinely sent back to Afghanistan forcefully, often without the little money they had managed to earn. While the research took place before the current deportations from Pakistan, its findings are ever more relevant now as over 300,000 Afghans have been deported between October and November 2023.
Mahmood*, a 17-year-old boy from Kandahar, says, “When I arrived in Iran, one of our relatives helped me find work. I worked there for more than four months. One day, the police came and arrested us and took us with them. They kept us for three weeks, beat us a lot and tortured us in different ways, and asked us why we had illegally entered their country. Another time, they put us in stinky bathrooms and toilets and didn’t provide us with food and water. Then, after all those tortures, they deported us to Nimroz. I didn’t have a penny in my pocket as I was arrested in the workplace where I left everything.”
After They Return — Education Gaps and Protection Challenges
After returning to Afghanistan, children and families return to living conditions that are often worse than those they left behind.
Since August 2021, the security situation has generally stabilised across Afghanistan. This has led to decreased conflict and violence-induced displacement, with over 1.2 million internally displaced persons returning to their places of origin between 2021 and 2022. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), between January and December 2022, 64,245 Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan (94 percent from Pakistan — over five times more than the overall number of returns in 2021), mainly due to the high living costs and lack of employment opportunities in host countries. In addition, hundreds of thousands of individuals have been deported back to Afghanistan from the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan.
A sharp decrease in international aid and significant administrative capacity constraints, however, has left a deficit in the delivery of basic services, jeopardising the lives of an entire generation of children like Reihana and Mahmood.
Afghanistan’s economy has rapidly declined, resulting in a drastic rise in urban and rural poverty, malnutrition, a near-collapse of the national public health system, and almost total exclusion of women and girls from public life. According to the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, ‘in 2023, a staggering 28.3 million people — or two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population — require urgent humanitarian assistance to survive.’
17-year-old Hakim* said, “To me, coming back to Afghanistan means struggling with life and living a poor life because there are no employment opportunities and a proper governance system to support us.”
For example, access to clean water is problematic in Kabul and women and girls in many places find it very hard to obtain feminine hygiene products. During their migration or internal displacement period, children often miss months, and sometimes years, of schooling. Even before moving, many of these children and young people may never have attended school. For those that did, their level of access to education is often lower upon their return due to barriers such as lack of ID documents and having left their home communities. Many of them don’t get access or assistance when needed, making their situation even worse.
Girls are particularly impacted and are more likely to be prevented from going to school — either because they are not allowed to due to government restrictions that forbid girls above grade 6 to attend school, school closures or because their families do not want them to go. “Our future is not clear,” said Maryam, 16, in Nimroz.
Thus, children under 18 have no option but to work in industrial townships with meagre salaries or as apprentices in shops.
Only one in three children and young people said they were satisfied with their life after returning to Afghanistan. Moreover, if the children need to continue to earn money to repay the costs of their journey and to support their families, migration will remain a primary goal.
Sheeba, * a 15-year-old girl who was internally displaced with her family following their recent return from the Islamic Republic of Iran, linked her current lack of opportunities with their ‘failed’ migration — a ‘failure’ that she felt particularly strongly.
The forced return process brings physical hardships, emotional distress and mental ill-health. Children and young people’s hopes for a better life through migration often turn into pessimism and despair as they face a deteriorated and uncertain future.
As They Stay — The Way Forward for Safer, Inclusive Future
Having been compelled to leave for a destination where they did not receive the support they needed and forced to return to a more difficult environment, 82% of the children we interviewed in Afghanistan planned to stay in their current location at least for the foreseeable future. This means that there are opportunities for service providers to help support these children and their families — investing in local integration and durable solutions is a priority for these children.
Safiullah*, a community leader from Herat, says that livelihood opportunities need to be paired with mental health support for returnees — a recommendation Samuel Hall and IOM highlighted in 2021 and which IOM now implements with their mobile health teams across the country. He says, “When a migrant returns, he has already lost everything. He has lost his spirit. Therefore, immigrants should also receive psychological support, but again, if a job is created and they are busy with work, they will not have time to be anxious and worried. Consequently, their mental condition shall improve.”
While violence against women and girls was pervasive in Afghanistan prior to August 2021, threats to their safety have substantially increased through policies that restrict women’s and girls’ freedom of movement and education, forcing them into isolation and leaving them at risk of experiencing further violence.
Access to essential services for returnees and IDP children — especially for girls — also needs to urgently be addressed. In interviews, children prioritised access to education, WASH services and safe spaces where children can play, participate and socialise. These recommendations align closely with the priorities identified through our participatory forum planning process in Jalalabad has put forth — with municipal stakeholders calling for a cleaner, greener and safer city for children and youth. There is also a critical need for cash support and counselling/social support.
International actors need to collaborate with local organisations to deliver this support inclusively, particularly addressing the lack of trust of local communities in initiatives that are intended, or in place. In addition to providing immediate aid and support, programmes should invest in local integration and monitor the impact on people’s rights — including their access to basic goods and services such as education, health and food, and track the level of progress made in supporting reintegration.
Child protection actors have an essential role in advocating for — and working with — local host governments and public authorities to address the needs of Afghan migrants and displaced families while also respecting and upholding the dignity, fundamental rights and standards of care throughout children’s experience of movement, irrespective of their legal migration status. In addition to facilitating more legal and safe pathways for Afghans to migrate out of the country, we need to commit to listening to the voices, particularly of women and children, which are often invisible and silenced.
These research findings resonate strongly with both UNICEF and Samuel Hall’s wider body of insights on the child migration and displacement space. Together, we emphasise the importance of upholding the rights of Afghan child migrants, first and foremost as children. All children have the right to grow up free from the shadow of insecurity, persecution and fear.
*Names have been changed to protect identity.
All illustrations courtesy of UNICEF INNOCENTI.
