FARAH CITY (Pajhwok): More than 500 high educated youth are jobless in western Farah province and if they did not find jobs, many of them would either join militants or leave the country, sources say.
Joblessness increased in the country after the establishment of the unity government, with the list of jobless people expanding.
Mohammad Ilyas Sadat Amiri, who graduated from the agriculture faculty of Herat University two years ago, told Pajhwok Afghan News he struggled a lot to find a simple job, but could not find one because he had no approach or money to pay as bribe to officials.
“Since 2013, I regularly visit the office of the Administrative Reforms and Civil Service Commission to know about any new vacancy, but in vain,” he said.
Recently Amiri sat an exam to be recruited as a teacher at the agriculture department of Farah. He passed the exam and was approved by the ministry, but later his appointment was rejected for unknown reasons.
Late, a 14-grade pass person, not more educated than Amiri, was recruited on the position because a lawmaker recommended him for the post.
Amiri then appeared in another exam for the post of a sanitation and greenery manager at the municipality department. He answered all questions properly, but again failed to be hired and the job went to another person.
“We are a family of10 and we live hand to mouth. I borrowed 400,000 afghanis to cover my wedding’s dowry and other costs two months ago…. I don’t know how to earn money and pay back the loan,” he said, adding he had started working at an ice-cream selling shop to earn livelihood for his family.
Out of his 20 classmates, only four have jobs and the rest are jobless, he said.
Mohammad Reza, who studied law and political science in 2013, is yet to get a job. “For a government job, one should pay bribe or should have links with a party, otherwise he/she should not try,” he said.
Recently, Reza applied for a position of a monitoring officer at the literacy section of the education department of Farah, but he could not get the job because he had no links with officials.
There are many educated people who are jobless in Farah and most of them are struggling with economic issues, he said. “If the government doesn’t pay attention to the issue of joblessness, the youth would be finally obliged to join militants, commit crimes or leave the country.”
Farah refugee and repatriation director Rahmuddin Rigiwal said he was concerned about joblessness among the youth. He said joblessness and migration have increased after the unity government’s coming into power. Up to a 15 percent increase has been recorded in migration from Farah over the past two years, he said.
According to recent reports, nearly 250,000 Afghans have migrated to European countries including 150,000 to Germany alone over the past one year.
More than 500 youth remain jobless in Farah due to corruption in the recruitment process, said Farid Bakhtawar, the provincial council head, who blamed the situation on recruitment against merit, connections and interference of lawmakers in the recruitment process.
“These are the reasons nearly 70 percent of government employees are unprofessional,” the public representative said, claiming that some youth had joined the Taliban over the past two years after failing to find jobs.
Some residents also accused the provincial council members of interfering in the recruitment process, but Bakhtawar said he had asked all members not to interference in the recruitment process.
A civil society organization chairman, Baryalai Ghafari, said more than 500 educated youth were jobless in the province.
“The youth have graduated from Afghan and foreign universities during the past four years, but due to the lack of jobs, corruption and violations of merit, they remain jobless,” he said.
The best way to create jobs is to maintain security and facilitate the private sector, he said, adding that the unity government leaders had pledged work opportunities, but the situation had further deteriorated and many offices had been closed and many people rendered jobless since the establishment of the new government.
Likewise, acting labour and social affairs director Mohammad Rasul Barakzai said although exact figures for jobless educated youth are not known, their strengthen could be more than 400 in Farah.
Many of the jobless youths graduated from universities over the past two or three years, he said, adding the joblessness had increased by 20 percent in Farah since the unity government came into power.
“We also conducted professional and vocational trainings for hundreds of uneducated men and women, but we haven’t conducted any such programme for educated people so far,” he said.
The only option to overcome joblessness is to maintain security and establish factories in the province.
myn/ma
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