After Return

11. Plans and reflections
Leaving again
The possibility of leaving Afghanistan again was
frequently raised by young returnees, with 15 young
people reporting that this was their priority for the
future, making statements such as “my priority is not
to start studying or working here, but to go back to
my girlfriend and get out danger” (R22, IAR).
Four young people expressed a desire to go back to
the UK specifically. Five others stated that they would
like to travel to somewhere in Europe, two preferred
Pakistan or Iran, while another four reported planning
to travel anywhere in order to leave Afghanistan.
Only five young people articulated specific pull
factors: two cited a desire to be back in the UK
because it is “good and peaceful” (R06, IM12), two
wanted to be reunited with their girlfriends and one
with his sister.
These pull factors are far outweighed by the push
factors, the most prevalent of which are the security
situation, lack of opportunity and lack of networks
in Afghanistan. Five young people cited safety
and security as the most pressing push factor, six
spoke about the lack of opportunities, and a further
five described a combination of the two. Young
people reported feeling that they had no future
in Afghanistan, and three young people framed
leaving Afghanistan as a survival issue. One said:
“They ruined my life by sending me back to
Afghanistan. My plan is to get out of Afghanistan as
soon as I can. My life is now ruined; I don’t have any
future here. Look at my health situation; I hardly can
do anything now. It is so bothering me.” (R16, IM12)
Of the 15 young returnees who articulated a desire
to leave, six had specific ideas about how to go
about this. Three talked in almost identical terms of
their plans “to make some money and get out of
Afghanistan as soon as possible” (R02, ILD; R04, ILD;
R18, IFI). Three others considered legal options for
return to the UK, with one pursuing an out of country
appeal and two seeking help from their UK-based
girlfriend and sister respectively to look into other
legal routes.
Nine other young returnees who talked about
their desire to leave lacked clear plans and were
confused about their options for leaving the
country again. A lack of understanding about the
feasibility of return to the UK, or EU more broadly,
was demonstrated by five young returnees, with
one asking, for example, “is there any chance
to apply again for the UK? Any chance?” (R01,
ILD). The uncertainty and lack of clear advice are
encapsulated in the words of R06 (IM12):
“He [a friend who “was also deported from UK many
years ago” but “went back to Italy and got papers”]
told me; if I want to go Europe again, then better
I go to Italy and take paper. But I still think I should
go to UK. I have spent around 6 years in UK, and it
is very hard for me to forget those good days. But I
am also concerned if I go there and they deport me
back. When they deported us, they said; we could
not go to UK for five years at least. I know a friend
of mine in UK. He was deported once from UK, and
only after few months he came back to UK and
sought asylum again. I don’t know how this systems
work.”
In spite of the risks of undertaking a further journey,
at the time of writing, six young people are known
to have left Afghanistan, one had made several
unsuccessful attempts to leave, while a further 11
could not be contacted.
Would consider remaining in
Afghanistan
Three young people spoke with some positivity about
the prospect of remaining in Afghanistan, with one
saying that “at the end of the day, it is my own
country” (R19, IM1), but nevertheless recognised
that “if the problem I have here wasn’t solved, then
Case study 10: Shoaib
Having spent six and a half years in the UK, Shoaib’s initial plan on return was to leave
Afghanistan again “if I get some money” (R16, IAR). At the same time, he expressed an
interest in learning a skill that would be useful to life in Afghanistan.
By his ninth month back in Afghanistan he reflected on the fact that he had still not found
work and that security conditions were getting worse. His new aim was “to get out of
Afghanistan as soon as possible” (R16, IM9). Three months later he continued talking about
the difficulties of life, saying that he was “just waiting for the right time to get out of here
again” (R16, IM12). Four months later (20 months after his forced removal) Shoaib was still
planning to “get out of Afghanistan as soon as I find the chance” (R16, IFI), following in
the footsteps of his other friends “who were also deported from UK [and] have already left
Afghanistan and are on the way back to Europe”, although he had made no tangible
progress towards this end.
After Return 51