Mobility has been an essential part of Afghanistan’s history. The mountainous geography, lower agricultural income, high taxes, droughts, and natural disasters were some of the major factors forcing Afghans to leave their homeland in search of a better life in the past. However, the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 and the subsequent civil war of the 1990s have caused major migration waves that were exacerbated by the Taliban’s emergence in 1994. As a result, millions of Afghans have been forced, in the last four decades of war and violence, to leave their homeland and take refuge in different countries around the world.

Currently, with 2.5 million registered refugees, Afghanistan is the largest refugee group in Asia and the second-largest in the world. Between 2008 and 2017, more than 545,000 Afghan nationals arrived in the European Union to apply for asylum. After the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the security situation deteriorated due to the increasing presence of the Taliban in most parts of the country, which triggered an exodus. The Afghans became the second largest group after Syrians seeking asylum in EU member states during the so-called ‘Refugee Crisis’.

The ‘Afghan problem and Afghan solution’, as the U.S. president, Joe Biden, had repeatedly stated, did not lead to a peace deal, but rather to a complete military takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban on August 15, 2021. The drastic annihilation of the Afghan security forces after President Ghani left Kabul came as a surprise, not only for the United States but also for its allies. The subsequent developments led to a disastrous situation for the Afghans and the international community. Now, as the Taliban have failed to establish an inclusive government and are lacking international recognition amid Afghanistan’s economic slump, many Afghans fear an uncertain future and flee the country. Pakistan and Iran have become immediate hosts, and the EU has allocated funds to prevent further displacement and reduce the burden on neighboring countries. Since 2002, the EU has provided billions in development aid, making Afghanistan one of the EU’s most important aid recipients worldwide.

Afghans’ immigration to Europe has remained mostly dependent on the political situation in Afghanistan. Hence, the Soviet Union invasion, the civil war of the Afghan Mujahidin (1992–1996), the emergence of the Taliban in 1994, the withdrawal of international troops in 2014, and the military takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021 have caused some of the major migration waves so far, turning Afghanistan into one of the countries with the largest diaspora in the world.