Afghan authorities report 120 missing children in Kabul

120 children, most of them girls, went missing in Kabul last year, according to the Taliban government's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

“Over the past year in Kabul, we have dealt with approximately 2,061 children, including 1,436 begging children who have been detained, registered, supported and returned to their families. In addition, there were 505 deported and 120 missing children, 85 of them girls, said Mohammad Sediq Tohidi, spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

All 120 missing children have been found and returned to their families. According to the ministry, 85 children are currently in care and receiving assistance at the center of the ministry.

There are no complete statistics on missing children throughout Afghanistan. The BBC was unable to obtain independent data on their total number in the country.

Shir Ahmad Rouhani, the former head of Kabul's 119th police station, told the BBC that some children are lost in the city and teenagers are trying to enter Iran via the Nimroz border crossing. He said law enforcement is working with border services and other agencies to find the missing and return them to their families.

Rouhani also said that the abduction of children in Afghanistan has completely stopped. According to the BBC, this claim could not be independently confirmed.

Since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the situation of women and girls has changed. Authorities banned girls from secondary school after sixth grade and women from higher education.

In May 2026, the Afghan authorities adopted a document that effectively abolished the minimum age for girls to marry and linked the possibility of marriage with the onset of puberty. The UN has expressed concern that such norms violate the rights of children.