Afghanistan Times
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The nerve-wracking poverty, security threats, corruption and unemployment are the key reasons behind human trafficking. A joint study by the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit and the United Nations Refugee Agency reveals these factors have goaded Afghan teenagers into fleeing their home country in search of promising livelihood opportunities. According to this fresh research on this subject, 44 percent of the total number of illegal migrants globally in 2014 were from Afghanistan—most of them children. The survey adds that illegal migrants age between 13 to 17 who usually take the route via Iran and Turkey. Europe being their final destination in mind, these children go through a great deal of pain, but despite that they opt to take this dangerous route where on every step death opens its jaws. As Afghanistan has been mired in a dogging conflict, its citizens have been refugees in millions and the new generation has taken an illegal route to go to Europe for a better future, but same like insecurity at home, the road to Europe is not less dangerous. Many have been drowned away by waters and many have been killed while crossing borders. Besides insecurity at home countries, illegal migration is mostly driven by lust for economic benefits as it occur in countries with significantly different GNPs per capita income. On one side, Europe has been decrying the huge influx of illegal migrants while on the other side the illegal migrants make a significant proportion of work forces. Though many European countries have attempted to curb influx of illegal migrants but this still remains an issue difficult to be resolved. While some of the countries appear to condone the influx because they fill the needed deficiencies in their employment markets as these people form a cheap work force—available at lower cost. To curb the huge exodus of people from Asia, growth differentials need to be addressed. Currently, Europe receives a huge number of illegal migrants where it looks unnerved how to address the challenge. Besides that among the illegal migrant seekers most of them are highly unskilled, with no high literacy rate. Afghan migrants face unspeakable challenges when they reach to destination countries. The first is communication barrier, lack of education, poor working conditions, and above all no interfaith harmony trainings. Though, there are literacy programs for them, but adapting to new situation takes time. Some of illegal migrants land in jails and some demand money from home country for their survival until their asylum cases are accepted. In such a situation heavy responsibility hangs on the shoulders of the Afghan government that has been receiving billions of dollars in the name of reconstruction and education. Should there be equitable distribution of wealth and ten Afghanistans would be reconstructed, but the problem is there is a permanent poor-rich standoff as the poor is getting poorest and the rich is getting richest. When at home people have economic opportunities, it will reduce the ratio of illegal migration considerably but when Afghan youth see their future is bleak here, they are left with no other choice but to take the road of illegal migration—which could end precious life any moment.
