News Almost half of Afghan evacuees returned home

Forty per cent of the 169 Afghans evacuated to Japan after the Taliban takeover returned to Afghanistan; 98 were granted refugee status, a rare move in Japan, most of them staff members working at the Japanese Embassy in Kabul. Most of the local embassy staff who fled Afghanistan speak only English, making it extremely difficult for them to find work. According to an evacuee, the public job placement office "Hello Work" said they had only a 1% chance of securing employment in Japan. Other factors compounded their struggles. Their children could not attend school until spring when Japan's school year starts, and only spouses and children could be brought to Japan, not other immediate family members such as parents and siblings.

Between October and December of last year, the ministry provided the embassy staff and their families with lodgings in Tokyo, meals and salaries. But several of the staff told Kyodo News that they were pressured to leave Japan, having been told that their work contracts would end in late August. They said ministry staff visited their homes and told them that living in Japan would be difficult and that a decision on whether to stay or leave the country would have to be discussed with their families. They also said the ministry told them that should they return to Afghanistan, their travel expenses would be shouldered and they would receive a 20 percent salary raise.

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Japan has also accepted 1,800 evacuees from Ukraine.