SITREP - Pressure and Peril: Afghan Refugees and Europe in 2017

Abstract

The number of Afghan refugees arriving on Europe’s shores this year was significantly lower than in 2015 and 2016, but the arrivals have not stopped. In 2017, there were still a few thousand Afghans making the hazardous trip across the Mediterranean to the continent, and tens of thousands more continued to be on the move inside Europe. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at some of the trends in Afghan-European migration in 2017 and concludes that the decrease in numbers coming to Europe is mainly a result of policy changes their vis-à-vis asylum seekers, not of the war in Afghanistan or the socio-economic problems related to it subsiding.