Forty-one percent of Afghans want to leave their country, according to a survey by US-based firm Gallup.
The percentage is highest since the pollster launched surveys in Afghanistan in 2008. It is compared with 33 percent in 2017.
“In the midst of the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the United Nations began documenting casualties, and as millions of Afghans also grappled with food insecurity, a record-high 41% of Afghans said they would move to another country permanently — if they could,” Gallup said of the 2018 survey.
Afghans’ desire to migrate has increased in every region of the country within the past two years, but it is highest in South-Western Afghanistan, where the Taliban have retaken control and where severe drought has driven many Afghans deeper into poverty and food insecurity. A slim majority in the South-Western region (52%) said they would like to move away permanently if they could.
Gallup said that the rise in the percentage of all Afghans who would like to migrate has been accounted for entirely by results among women, nearly half (47%) of whom in 2018 said they would like to leave.
Nearly two decades into a war touted as “a fight for the rights and dignity of women,” Gallup surveys in 2018 showed Afghan women were the least satisfied women in the world with the freedom to choose what they do with their lives; 33% said they were satisfied. With 80% of women out of the workforceand 91% with a primary education or less, these choices remain rather limited.
Amid rising fears that they could lose what freedoms they do have as the Taliban continues to take more control over their country, the percentage of Afghan women who say they would like to move has nearly tripled since 2016, and for the first time, significantly more women (47%) than men (35%) want to leave, Gallup said.
Germany, Turkey Are Top Desired Destinations:Afghans who say they would like to move to another country are most likely to name Germany (19%) and Turkey (19%), the two countries where Afghan refugees make up the second-largest refugee populations after Syrians, as their preferred destination. The U.S., which is often the No. 1 desired destination for most of the world’s potential migrants, is the next-most mentioned after the first two, with 12% saying they would like to move there.
