KABUL (SW) – Mohammad Aslam Taymour was an active media professional in Afghanistan before leaving the country about six years ago due to security concerns and settling in Switzerland.
Born in Maymana, in Faryab province of Afghanistan, Taymour completed his higher education at the Faculty of Engineering in Jawzjan University in 2014. He later worked in the media sector in Afghanistan due to his interest and passion, and he continued with this in Switzerland.
Taymour, who has worked for various audio and visual media firms in Afghanistan for more than five years, shared with Salam Watandar the ordeal of his tumultuous life as a migrant.
- Irregular migration, just a loaf of bread a day!
- The unforgettable tale of treacherous routes of irregular migration
According to him, achieving dreams as a migra is not an easy task and requires tireless efforts. He said achieving aspiration in foreign land during exile was many times more difficult than at home, on the one hand, one had to learn the language of a foreign country and, on the other hand, adapt to the environment and culture.
“We saw a lot of problems with migration. When we left Turkey for Greece, our boat stopped in the middle of the water, we stayed in the middle of the water for half an hour. Everyone feared the boat would sink and all would sink”, he said. “Eventually, one of the young men inside the boat managed to fix the engine of the boat, and then we managed to reach one of the Greek islands.”
He considers himself very lucky among the migrants and said that he has seen people in the camps of Greece, Austria and Switzerland who were waiting with an unclear fate and tired of life, even for five to ten years.
Taymour said he saw people in camps who hanged themselves or were faced with psychological problems.
- Living in despair after enduring hardships of irregular migration
- Under-age marriages, discrimination leading to irregular migration
“I was still active for three years when I was not legally allowed to work. For example, I was introduced to the Swiss language and learned how to work in the media and made several films for local firms, and at least I was able to learn to work with the camera in three years and was introduced to a number of professional people. My cultural activities also continued during this time, and we did some cultural work with a number of Afghans as well. Eventually, after three years, I was accepted as a refugee. I am currently working on my production house and I plan to formalize my production in the coming days and work this way”, he said.
Taymour now often gets hired in Switzerland to work on commercial video productions and has worked with a number of Swiss actors on several films over the past three years.
ENDS
