MAZAR-E-SHARIF (SW) – Balkh resident Ahmad Noor was too concerned due to insecurity and joblessness that he rushed for irregular migration to Iran along with his family without considering the grim risks attached.
He blindly trusted human traffickers, and sold all his household to pay for the promised irregular trip to Europe along with his wife and two children. In conversation with Salam Watandar, he said the human traffickers traded him among them multiple times on the way to Iran.
This trip that he underwent five years ago still haunts him.
The dejected father said he lost a four-year old daughter to severe fever during a thorny four-day long trip to Turkey from Iran. On top of all the hardships and death of his daughter, when Noor eventually made it to Turkey, he was captured by the border guards only to be deported back to Iran and eventually back to Afghanistan.
Upon return, he had nowhere to go, but to eventually take shelter with his wife and a seven-year-old son at a relative’s home.
Regretting his choice of irregular migration, Ahmad Noor said he had no idea of the risks attached. He deeply laments losing his daughter and all of his savings. He suggests everyone thinking about migration to never opt for irregular migration.
Head of the directorate of refugees and repatriation, Syed Mohammad Massoud Qaderi, said in this connection that the traffickers sell the desperate migrants among them multiple times during the trip. He said at least 910 Afghans have been deported back to Afghanistan from European countries in the past six months.
In views of the Balkh chapter of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the raging violence and joblessness continue to force more and more Afghans to seek ways out of the country through irregular migration. Head of the AIHRC in Balkh, Syed Mohammad Same, said the government should strive hard to address these issues.
ENDS
