KABUL, April 10 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan ministry has provided 180 recovered drug addicts with permanent jobs, in the latest efforts to help drug users to rejoin the society, a local newspaper reported on Monday.
"Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled has employed 180 recovered drug addicts after they successfully completed a two-year treatment program at Omid National Rehabilitation Center in Kabul," the Daily Outlook Afghanistan reported.
In mid-last year, the Afghan government established Omid National Rehabilitation Center in Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military compound in the eastern edge of Kabul that housed units of U.S. and NATO forces during their presence before 2014, to help drug addicts to recover and rejoin the society.
Hundreds of drug addicts have been receiving medical treatment and vocational training at the center.
"After the establishment of Omid Center, so far, 600 addicts have been treated and 150 others were given vocational training," Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled Nasrin Oryakhil was quoted in the report as saying.
The ministry would hire more recovered drug users in the future, she added.
An estimated 1.9 million to 2.4 million adult drug addicts are living in the country and the drug addiction is often the result of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and trauma from continuing conflicts and migration, according to Afghan officials.
In 2016, some 4,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan, particularly in western and southern parts of the militancy-hit country, where the government security forces have little presence, according to official figures.
