Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN

Military ::Afghanistan

Military branches:

Afghan Armed Forces: Afghan National Army (ANA, includes Afghan Air Force (AAF)) (2011)

Military service age and obligation:

18 is the legal minimum age for voluntary military service; no conscription (2012)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 7,056,339

females age 16-49: 6,653,419 (2010 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 4,050,222

females age 16-49: 3,797,087 (2010 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 392,116

female: 370,295 (2010 est.)

Military expenditures:

10% of GDP (2012)

country comparison to the world:  3   

Transnational Issues:  Afghanistan

Disputes - international:

Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan military meet periodically to clarify the alignment of the boundary on the ground and on maps; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey; Iran protests Afghanistan's restricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan which serve as bases for foreign terrorists and other illegal activities; Russia remains concerned about the smuggling of poppy derivatives from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 16,147 (Pakistan) (2012)

IDPs: 492,777 (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to drought and instability) (2013)

Trafficking in persons:

current situation: Afghanistan is a source transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, although domestic trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking; Afghan men are subjected to forced labor and debt bondage in Iran, Pakistan, Greece, Turkey, and the Gulf states; Afghan women and girls are forced into prostitution and domestic servitude in Pakistan, Iran, and India, while women and girls from the Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and China are reportedly sexually exploited in Afghanistan; children are increasingly subjected to forced labor in carpet-making factories, domestic servitude, forced begging, and commercial sexual exploitation; some children are sold to settle debts

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Afghanistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons; anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts have improved, though official complicity in human trafficking remains a problem; the first known convictions were made under the government's 2008 anti-trafficking law; Afghanistan has not developed or employed systematic procedures to identify trafficking victims or refer them to protective services and continues to rely on NGOs to provide the vast majority of victim assistance; the government has not made discernible progress in preventing human trafficking or protecting victims but has adopted an anti-trafficking action plan (2013)

Illicit drugs:

world's largest producer of opium; while poppy cultivation was relatively stable at 119,000 hectares in 2010, a poppy blight affecting the high cultivation areas in 2010 reduced potential opium production to 3,200 metric tons, down over 40 percent from 2009; the Taliban and other anti-government groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counter-drug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; regional source of hashish (2011)

Source