Unable to Leave: The Afghans Stuck in Afghanistan

Thousands of at-risk Afghans need practical, accessible, and legal routes to international protection, and continued efforts to ensure support for those “involuntarily immobile.

One year after the Taliban takeover, widespread hunger, destitution, and segregation – ethnic, religious, and gender-based – is increasing. According to the World Food Program, more than 90 percent of Afghans have been suffering from food insecurity since last August. Over 1 million children under the age of 5 are suffering from prolonged acute malnutrition. The economic collapse facing the country after the withdrawal of foreign support and freezing of assets has crippled the capacity of local actors to respond to these challenges.

Meanwhile, targeted violence and other armed conflict continues to displace and kill innocent people. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented 2,106 civilian casualties between August 15, 2021, (the day the Taliban took over Kabul) and June 15, 2022. A total of 3.4 million people are now internally displaced in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was ranked the most dangerous country in the world for four consecutive years, from 2019 to 2022 by the Global Peace Index – an annual report that measures how dangerous a nation is based on 23 indicators including political terror, deaths from internal conflict, and murder rate.

The most vulnerable people, those disproportionately affected by the risks and challenges, are often unable to find support or access protection. Hazaras remain the principal victims of catastrophic ISK attacks and Taliban atrocities, and are regularly subjected to forced evictions. Women and girls are also under siege, as the Taliban has created a devastating women’s rights crisis. Women and girls are banned from access to education, employment, health care, and political representation. The Taliban have targeted female activists with harassment and abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and physical and psychological torture. This treatment has also been applied to people allied with the former regime, and at least 160 former government and security officials have been executed since the Taliban takeover, according to UNAMA.

For these groups, migration is an essential protection lifeline – however, it is increasingly inaccessible. A lack of safe, legal, and accessible pathways for migration means many who need to leave are not able. According to the data collected by Mixed Migration Centre, Afghans can only obtain visas for a few neighboring countries, and the process is complicated and costly. Former officials and security forces stuck in the country are further challenged as their biometric data is registered in the Population Registry database, which is now managed by the Taliban.

Alternate and illicit migration routes are therefore often the preferred – or only – option for many looking to leave. However, the growing cost of smuggling services, a direct consequence of increased demand, makes these routes inaccessible for many. Those simply too poor, frail, or ill to be able to afford the risk and hardship of an attempt to flee. These Afghans are a trapped population.