Afghans swell refugee tide as they flee war, unemployment

KABUL — As a recent high school graduate from a middle-class Kabul family, Mohammed Fahim Aazar has the means to go to college and pursue a profession in Afghanistan, but instead he’s acquired a $5,600 visa and a plane ticket to Turkey, where he will embark on the migrant trail to Europe.

Bound for far-off Finland, he’s joining the largest wave of global migrants and refugees since World War II, hundreds of thousands of people seeking a better life in Europe.

Their flight is driven by despair in a country that remains mired in war and poverty despite a 14-year U.S.-led intervention and billions of dollars in international aid.

[...] their ranks include middle- and upper-class Afghans with skills needed to rebuild the war-torn country.

In the years after the 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban, more than 5.8 million Afghans returned home, but the rate of return slowed five years ago, according to the U.N. refugee agency, as the insurgents regrouped and reconstruction stalled.

Over the past two years, as the U.S. and NATO withdrew most of their forces and the Taliban advanced, aid and investment dried up, leaving few opportunities even for educated Afghans.

Unemployment hovers at 24 percent, according to the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, as once-promising industries like mining have been crippled by the unrest and lack of investment.