After risking death on the migrant trail and two months in "nightmarish" refugee centres in Germany, Mohammed Asif bought a one-way ticket back to Afghanistan, relinquishing his lifelong dream of asylum in Europe.
Afghans are the second-largest migrant group -- behind Syrians -- arriving in Europe, where authorities are struggling to cope with the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II.
A small but growing number, like 26-year-old Asif, are now returning to their country torn by war and gripped by economic malaise, as overcrowded refugee centres, a lack of jobs and the rise of anti-immigrant fervour in Europe leave them disillusioned. "I thought Europe would offer me a comfortable life, but I found only hostility and pain," said Asif, who has a graduate degree in economics and left for Germany with a people-smuggler last year.
"The refugee camps were nightmarish and Europeans kept humiliating us all the time. Many of them say refugees will destroy the culture of their country," he told AFP, after returning to Kabul.
A chartered plane last month brought 135 disillusioned Afghan refugees back from Germany, in what is likely to be the first of many such flights organised by Kabul, Berlin and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Afghanistan is witnessing what local officials call an "unprecedented" migration towards European nations as tens of thousands of civilians flee decades of turmoil and war tearing their country apart.
Smuggling networks are flourishing, making money from desperate migrants undertaking dangerous journeys on well-trodden Mediterranean trails via Iran, Turkey and Greece.
But many realise, rather belatedly, that most smugglers sell them a pack of lies about big mansions, lucrative jobs and a cosy life in Europe.
"The most dangerous part of my long journey to Europe was from Iran to Turkey," Asif recalled.
"There was an overweight Afghan boy in our group who was struggling to walk through the mountains. The smuggler was cruel -“ he gave him a kick and he went tumbling down the slopes. We never found his body."
