KABUL (Pajhwok): Dozens of youth on Saturday staged a protest demonstration against what they said growing unemployment which they termed the main reason behind insecurity, capital flight and migration.
Criticising government’s policies in this regard, the protestors who had gathered in front of the parliament house in Darul Aman area of capital Kabul demanded the government address the issue.
Unemployment has pushed many youth into drug addiction and crimes and others into migration to foreign countries.
The protesters held placards with messages “unemployment is equal to violence,” “jobs available for candidates with references, no job without a reference.”
Kambiz Qurbani, one of the protesters, told Pajhwok Afghan News through their protest they wanted to draw the government’s attention toward the scourge of unemployment in the country.
Meanwhile, Ali Iftikhari, the spokesman for the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD), said the issue of unemployment had turned into a great challenge for the unity government.
He said the decline in foreign aid and the surge in incidents of violence had served a major blow to government efforts at  creating jobs. According to him, the MoLSMD was working on short and long-term plans to get rid of unemployment and produce jobs.
Earlier, the National Workers Union (NWU) had said as many as 16 million people in the country were eligible to work out of which three million had jobs and the remaining were jobless.
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