KABUL (SW) – Sharif is a 35-year-old man who, many years ago, embarked on the thorny path of irregular immigration along with his wife and three children to Iran and Turkey.
According to him, after seventeen shattering days and nights of hunger, thirst in the face of death, he along with his family arrived in Iran. Sharif said he had paid five million Iranian tomans to transfer his five family members to Iran on this bitter path.
After spending three-and-a-half years in Iran, he moved onwards to Turkey in his search for safer and better life.
As he arrived in Turkey after a rough five-night journey through difficult and irregular migration route, he settled here only for twelve hours a day hard labor at a clothing factory for only 60 Turkish Liras. Although, he could spend his day with this wage, he eventually returned to home country Afghanistan and opened a hair cutting saloon.
Now, he is happy with his life in the comfort of his home country.
Commenting on this, head of the directorate of refugees and repatriation in Parwan province, Abdul Wahid Karimi, said more than 32,000 Afghans have been deported from different countries since 2002 to Parwan. According to Karimi, 2006 had the highest number of returnees.
According to him, the rate of forced return of immigrants to Afghanistan has been significantly high in recent years.
While the Afghan government has spoken out about the increase in deportations of Afghan immigrants from other countries, the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, is spearheading efforts to persuade host countries to stop the process.
Mohammed Hades Pardes, an IOM official in the country, said on top of the efforts to persuade host countries, this international organization is also providing first aid and assistance to returning individuals.
Irregular migration is one of the major global challenges that has caused millions of people to migrate to various countries, including from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen amid the ensuing unrest.
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