KABUL (SW) – It is not only poverty, war and unemployment that drives young people into irregular migrations, but in some cases, people with jobs also accept the risk of irregular migration at the expense of their own lives.
Nasrallah is a young man who quit his job in search of better living conditions. Nasrallah first went to Iran with his wife and three children. Like others, Nasrallah had similar beliefs presented to him by smugglers.
Nasrallah says, “After a long wait in Iran, we made our way to Turkey and boarded a truck.” He narrated the frightening nights and the impassable plains, saying: “One night, we went to the Turkish border with 52 of our companions, including elderly women. The children were crying out of hunger and tiredness, the screams of helplessness were all around, and we, as fathers and mothers, could do nothing but endure their cries. ”
According to Nasrallah, when they reach the Urmia area (the border between Iran and Turkey), we were suddenly shot with bullets. Traffickers steal our precious belongings and took us to another route. In the middle of the shotgun, only the older men and women remained, and the rest were transported on the few horses that the smugglers had brought.
“It was 12 o’clock in the night when the sky was cloudy and raining,” he said. “I tied my son on my back with a travel blanket and held my wife’s hand – who is suffering from diabetes, and walked for hours. It was raining so hard that we were no longer able to walk. My wife was crying and my son was screaming”, he said. “The smugglers said it was only few minutes’ walk to the destination, but we traveled for much longer.”
Nasrallah returned to Iran after enduring much suffering and pain as well as lose of fortune and wealth, and eventually only to be deported by the Iranian guards back to Afghanistan.
Nasrallah is now living in Kabul and is striving for a normal life.
The ministry has drafted a five-year strategy and will be implemented soon, said Nayib Firouzzad, head of human rights advocacy at the Ministry of Justice.
In this connection, Rouhullah Sheikhzadeh, head of the Immigration Information Center, said efforts have been ensured to help returnees begin new life.
As per the International Organization of Migration, out of three Afghan citizens one has experienced irregular migration.
ENDS
