In Tajikistan, Afghan refugees fear they’re trapped in a dead end. After the Taliban takeover, many Afghans fled to the neighbouring country of Tajikistan, where they speak the same language and share cultural similarities.
After the Taliban takeover, the Tajik government initially said it would receive up to 100,000 Afghan refugees. But jobs are scarce in Tajikistan. Roughly half of working-age men leave to labor abroad. The economy is always poor, but new economic downturns – from COVID, from Russia’s war in Ukraine – have further raised prices for staple goods.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that there were just over 8,500 Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in Tajikistan by this summer. Of those, 5,700 arrived after the Taliban took over last August – a little over 5 percent of what Tajikistan committed to taking.
In the town of Vahdat, an Afghan community has appeared, all looking for work or ways out of the country.
In the town of Vahdat, an Afghan community has appeared, all looking for work or ways out of the country.
