Six years ago, when Najib* was 15, Taliban fighters came to his home in Shinwar District* in the eastern province of Nangarhar telling him to join them. After repeated visits, his family sought a way for Najib to escape, and paid a smuggler to take him to the UK.
Last year in the UK, a Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) report found that hundreds of children travelling unaccompanied to the UK received inadequate support from the state.
Also, earlier this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) found Italy summarily sending unaccompanied children (and adult asylum seekers) back to Greece - a country in which asylum system and detention conditions have led several EU states to suspend their transfers to the country.
Nearly all Afghans - 96 percent, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross - have been affected in some way by the ongoing armed conflict, with 76 percent having experienced displacement.