Drawing upon interviews with 50 Afghan deportees from European countries, this study examines how they have the potential to delegitimise and ultimately weaken and destabilise the Afghan State. As an exploratory research, it attempts to identify the key sources of the deportee population’s grievance and resentment against the Afghan State and the ways and methods they might chose to express this resentment. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The population of Afghan citizens deported back to Afghanistan from European countries constitutes a significant community, which has the potential of contributing to a further destabilisation of Afghanistan. Deportees make up of a population group extremely traumatized by their long, dangerous and expensive journeys in hopes of better and safe places to begin new chapters in the lives. A real and/or perceived sense of deep insecurity and lack of safety were cited as the major factors causing the original flight of the deportees interviewed. Escape from extreme poverty and lack of hope and prospects for improvement in their living conditions were cited as secondary factors for seeking refuge outside of Afghanistan. Almost all the deportees interviewed during this research reiterated that they had never thought of the government as an effective source of protection and security, nor did they think that the government would be able to protect them from risks and dangers in the foreseeable future. The deportee population from Europe, coupled with large number of deportations from regional countries especially Iran and Pakistan, has the potential to transform into an important source of threat and instability in the country. These Afghan citizens, in fact, are extremely vulnerable to recruitment by criminal and insurgent groups. Extremely disgruntled at the way the National Unity Government has facilitated their deportation, as the deportees believe, the deportees could become a significant source of disturbances. They could be quickly mobilised to act against the state or could be exploited by other social and political groups and movements to challenge the authority of the government. Many factors, so far, have accounted for lack of national mobilisation of the deportee population as an anti-state force. First, the deportee population is extremely scattered across different regions, which makes networking and communication highly difficult. Second, they struggle for their survival and the survival of their family members after an extremely difficult and financially crippling journey. Third, many expressed fear of being physically eliminated by the government directly and indirectly. The deportees interviewed believed that the attacks on public demonstrations in Kabul and elsewhere were machinations by government elements and agencies. And most importantly, the plight of the deportees has been overshadowed by the emergence of other protest movements, women’s rights issues and the encroachment of Taliban into hitherto safe areas of the country. Lack of empathy and the disengagement of civil society and human rights groups with the deportee population and their issues have also contributed to their isolation and disenfranchisement. By recognising Afghan deportees as a fast expanding population group in the face of current large-scale deportations from various countries in the Global North, this research report has explored the question of how deportees, and in particular Afghan deportees from European countries, could delegitimise and ultimately weaken and destabilise the Afghan State. This is an exploratory study in nature and scope, aimed at identifying the key sources of resentment amongst the deportee population and the potential