The UN says more than 5,900 Afghan children were smuggled into Europe in 2009.
The UN high commissioner for refugees said in a report released on Monday that more and more children are escaping from Afghanistan due to worsening living conditions in their homeland. The agency says children are being pushed by parents to leave with smugglers in order to earn money in Europe and send it back to their families in Afghanistan.
The report says “Afghan parents, families and communities have allowed and encouraged the departure of their children on hazardous journeys.” The agency also found that almost half of underage asylum claims in Europe in 2009 were made by Afghan youths.
The world’s total number of refugees stood at 15.2 million, according to the report. Of those, around 2.9 million were Afghans, 1.8 million Iraqis and 6,80,000 Somalis.
That total also includes 4.8 million Palestinian refugees managed by a separate UN agency. “In many parts of the world, conflict is entrenched in such a way that it doesn’t allow for safe and dignified return,” said Volker Tuerk, the agency’s protection director. “We’re moving into an era of more prolonged refugee situations.”
Millions of refugees have been living in exile for five years or longer, the report said. Most refugees stay in neighbouring countries or other nations in the region they come from. The total number of returning refugees has gone down every year since 2004, according to the 32-page report. More than 5.3 million Afghans have gone home since 2002, a year after a US-led coalition ousted Afghanistan’s Taliban from power, the report said.
In the first year alone, around two million refugees returned to Afghanistan. In 2008, some 2,75,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan. In 2009, only 57,600 Afghans did that and many more were unable to return because the situation in Afghanistan was too dangerous and there were no houses and basic services for people to rebuild their lives.