Sweden spends millions on Afghan voluntary return campaign with no participants so far

Sweden has spent more than eight million kronor (about $820,000) on a voluntary return programme encouraging Afghan migrants to return to Afghanistan, but no participants have taken up the offer since the initiative began in 2025, according to Sweden’s Aftonbladet.

The programme, known as “Zindagi Taza” (“New Life”), is run by the international organisation Seefar and funded by the Swedish government. It aims to reach around 2,000 Afghans living in Sweden and encourage 200 of them to return voluntarily to Afghanistan.

With only two months remaining before the project concludes, no one has returned through the programme.

Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell said it was too early to judge the initiative’s effectiveness.

“I think we should wait until the end of the project before we evaluate it,” Forssell told Aftonbladet.

The campaign targets Afghan nationals who have been unable to be deported from Sweden. According to Forssell, one of the programme’s objectives is to reduce the number of migrants who remain in the country without legal status by encouraging voluntary return rather than forcing people underground.