Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kabul (Agenzia Fides) – “Forced expulsion of Afghan immigrant children from the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe puts the children in serious danger and this must stop”: say human rights activists. The United Kingdom, which in 2009, offered asylum to over 1,500 Afghan minors, has allocated 6 million dollars to build a Rehabilitation Centre in Kabul for Afghan children deported from Britain. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR, and some European countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland, have decided to send immigrant Afghan children aged 16 and 17 back to Kabul.
According to the International Office for Migration IOM, over the past four years the number of Afghan refugees has risen considerably. In 2009 some 26,803 Afghans requested asylum in 39 different countries: about 45% more compared with the 18,453 requests made in 2008 to 44 countries. The principal factors which determine this rapid rise in numbers include lack of security, high rate of unemployment, scarce socio-economic opportunities and total disillusionment with regard to improved conditions in the future, whereas factors of attraction include better living conditions in Europe and in Australia. Most migrants are teenagers who pay vast sums to smugglers for a passage to Europe. Circa 80% of all migration is towards industrialised countries and countries in the south of the world.
Thousands of Afghans, many of them children, cross the borders with Pakistan and Iran every day, some without identity papers, in search of work or other opportunities. In the past three years Iran has deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Illegal migration continues, and indeed increased rapidly in 2008. According to UNHCR, Pakistan and Iran, since 2002, have refused to register Afghan refugees and 55% of the asylum requests sent to Holland in 2009 were returned. In April, Australia suspended requests for asylum from Afghanistan for six months. In 2002-2005 millions of Afghan refugees were repatriated from Pakistan and Iran. However in 2009, 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees were still in Pakistan and about 935,000 were still in Iran. (AP) (22/6/2010 Agenzia Fides)
