Youth on the Move: former unaccompanied minors

removed to AfghanistanEmily Bowerman

Our research

Broken Futures: Young Afghan asylum seekers in the UK and their country of origin

•Background•Methodology•Field visit to Kabul

Research conclusions• From looked-after child to failed adult asylum

seeker• Youth pushed into negative decision-making

nexus• ‘Safe’ return? Complex intersecting factors• Targeted support essential

Key finding 1

Youth as distinct category•Dichotomy between adult and child unhelpful•Development of cognitive and emotional integration processes •Youth as special category in other sectors•Exacerbating effect of displacement on transition to adulthood

Key finding 2Mental heath implications of ‘living in limbo’•Long-term negative impacts on emotional and psychological wellbeing•Depression and self-harm•Inability to engage with concept of future•Vision of life reduced to survival strategies“We are in a prison even if we look free… I don’t know what I can do. I don’t know. Where can I go where they will let me have plans? Nothing is easy anymore, especially not the future. At the moment I can’t do anything, I just walk around… there is nothing to do. Really I have no hope.”

Key finding 3Danger of youth as threat/youth as vulnerable stereotypes•Overnight transition from one stereotype to the other•Our actions can actively push youth towards one of the stereotypes we have wrongly created

“I feel so angry because there is nothing I can do… one friend told me I should just go back and fight a jihad there because this country has given me nothing in the end. I don’t want to do this, but you start to see why people feel so hopeless, and also people do anything when they need to survive.”

Key finding 4

Acceptance of over-simplified paradigms•Different agendas can lead to simplistic responses•Although reality is more complex, it is often no less compelling•Youth pay the price for our acceptance of these over-simplified paradigms

Key issues on return

• Returned youth as empty-handed outsiders• Psychosocial impact of UK/Afghanistan contrast – poverty and

insecurity• Westernisation – perceived and actual• Limited education and employment options – mismatched

skills• Leaving again – at risk of exploitation• Problems with anti-government groups

Our response

‘Youth on the Move’ programme: • UK support component• Mapping of organisations in Afghanistan• Kabul-based Monitoring Officer

Interviews with former UASCs in Afghanistan

“I’ve been thinking about my life and the future – it’s just empty”

“Good things [about UK] are that I was able to study. The bad thing was just being deported. I miss the UK now. Everyone

there is friendly and good. Also I feel angry at the UK because I went on such a bad journey – I only came to the UK because of the problem with my father and I am angry because they sent

me back here.”

Employment and money

“It’s not like in England… I am spending all my money just to rent the room and pay for buses.”

“But this [construction work] is not really a job…I am an IT man.”

Education

“It’s difficult to continue studying because I don’t have money and any money I have to spend to rent my room. I wish I could continue because I like studying.”

Family and contacts

“I don’t want to make friends because if I make friends I will have to sometime tell them my story and I can’t do that.”

Being a returnee

“People think that you’re bad that you’ve been, come back, what have you been doing.”

“I think it [current expensive accommodation] is the safest place I can be because I trust the person. This is important when you don’t know no one.”

“I don’t want people to find out about my story or get to know me too well.”

Plans to leave again

“I want to go back to London, I can’t live here any more. I can only stay if I find a good job, otherwise I will try to leave again.”

Rahim

For more info contact Emily Bowerman atebowerman@refugeesupportnetwork.org