OF ALL OF AFGHANISTAN’S LAWLESS PROVINCES, Nimruz is perhaps the rawest and most untamed. The desert in southwestern Afghanistan, cornering up against Iran and Pakistan, looks like something out of Mad Max: a post-apocalyptic wasteland where only camel herders and smugglers seem to thrive. Sandstorms kick up without warning, swallowing the horizon in a thick beige mist. Out of the haze, a group of motorcyclists suddenly rides past, their hair stiff with grit and their eyes hidden by goggles.

This is wild country.

Nimruz is a microcosm of what has gone wrong in the Afghan war. The province’s lawlessness is a testament to the Western-backed government’s failure to assert authority and curtail rogue strongmen. As Afghanistan’s drug-smuggling hub, it provides a financial artery for the Taliban, who appear stronger than ever. And because of its largely unprotected borders, and complicity from the few forces that actually guard them, it has long been a gateway for the growing number of Afghans who, facing increasing violence and a stagnant economy, have simply lost hope that their motherland can be their home.

Despite the dangers that await—kidnappers, insurgents, corrupt border guards, and some 16,000 square miles of merciless terrain—what lies beyond the wilderness calls to young Afghan men like sirens in the desert.

The most ambitious travelers aim for Europe, where in 2015 Afghans made up the second-largest group of asylum-seekers, trailing only Syrians. The subsequent tightening of controls on several European borders has since prevented many Afghans from reaching the continent’s shores. But they still choose to leave Afghanistan, settling instead to work as day laborers in Iran. According to those who have made the journey, it costs about $500 per traveler, which can be earned back in a month as a construction worker, bricklayer, or fruit picker in Iran. That is more than twice the salary of an Afghan soldier on the front line. There are risks that come with this trade-off. Once migrants make it to Iran, they often face mistreatment from employers. And many young Afghans pick up drug habits in Iran, which has