Afghan+Refugee+Crisis

=Refugee crisis: Could Afghans who fled to Greece to escape the Taliban now be forced to return home? (source) =  Leaked EU documents have left some fearing exactly that outcome

Many refugees point out that while they would like to work when, and if, they are settled in Europe, ideally they would work in Afghanistan, but it is simply not possible due to the risks AP  The letter addressed to the English teacher began gently enough: “You are Ziarmal, son of Mohammed Zaher, from Khvajeh Khan village.” After a few meandering sentences it delivered a shatteringly blunt conclusion: “The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the military committee have decided to execute you.”

It was one of the “night letters” used by the Taliban to disseminate threats to any Afghan deemed to be an enemy. Government employees, human rights activists, sub-contractors working for foreign companies and even teachers are among the most common recipients. Last year, after fleeing thousands of miles from his homeland, the teacher who was the target of that death threat made a temporary new home in a leaking UK Aid tent overlooking Athens. Mr Zaher, from Baghlan province, is among thousands of Afghans trapped in one of the state’s refugee camps – unable to go forward, because Greece’s neighbours have closed their borders to them, and too frightened to return. READ MORE == Aid groups end activities in Greece over refugee detention centres ==

Now, he faces a new threat: that the hardening attitude of the European Union to refugees arriving on its shores will end up with Afghans like himself being forcibly returned. Earlier this month a confidential EU foreign service document came to light discussing a need to begin returning large numbers of Afghans to their home country. It set out the need for a common definition of “safe areas” within Afghanistan, to be adopted by all member states when considering asylum claims, and suggested that while as many of 60 per cent of Afghan claims are accepted “more than 80,000 persons could potentially need to be returned in the near future”. 



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Afghan refugees pushed to return home For Mr Zaher, such a suggestion is chilling. He is clear that he didn’t want to leave his homeland behind or end up in the Schisto refugee camp where he is now sheltering, but he had no choice. “Because of the Taliban, Afghanistan became like a tent for me, it was too small,” he said. “Where could I go, where could I work? Wherever I went, I was in danger.” READ MORE == Afghanistan ruled safe enough to deport asylum-seekers from UK == Mr Zaher, 28, became an English teacher immediately after leaving school and over a period of six years rose to become the head of a small, mixed school in his local village. But from the beginning the Taliban threatened him, insisting he stop educating girls and stop teaching a Western language. “One day, the Taliban came to the school with their guns and searched the school. They asked, ‘What language are you studying? Which book are you teaching to the students and to the girls?’ And they told me girls aren’t allowed to come to school.” He told them they should take this up with the government, adding: “Take your guns and start your wars.” Their reply was: “Goodbye, we will see you again soon.” He is in no doubt what that meant. “This was a warning. They were threatening me.” Soon Mr Zaher received his first letter from the Taliban, warning him that if he didn’t stop teaching and join them they would kill him. He was reluctant to abandon his profession but his father persuaded him to leave and he found a new career, working as a sub-contracted safety manager for the US Army. But from there his problems only increased. 



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Afghan teen refugees fear deportation The Taliban tracked him down and he received a second letter stating that, as he now worked with Americans, he was an American informant and had been sentenced to death. The work soon dried up. Mr Zaher found himself jobless and unable to return to his family. But while staying with relatives in Kabul the Taliban caught up with him again. “The Taliban called me and said: ‘You ran away from Baghlan and we know you are in Kabul. We have people in Kabul, where can you escape, where can you run to?’” The final straw was the murder of his father by the Taliban. Unable to continue life in Afghanistan, Mr Zaher decided to make the 2,000-mile journey to Europe, beginning four months ago and ending up in Greece within the past few weeks. His story is far from unique. 



0:00   /    2:16     Ratib Faqiri, 34 and from Logar province, also found he had little choice but to become a refugee, after working for 10 years as a transport manager for the US logistics company Supreme Group, which subcontracted for the US Army. “My job for Supreme was very nice,” he said. “$1,000 salary a month, which is very good for Afghanistan. I bought two cars. But I sold everything to come [to Europe]. “My town was full of the Taliban, and all my neighbours knew I worked with Americans. The Taliban sent me a warning letter and they said: ‘We have seen you with Americans and if you want to live, leave this company.’ READ MORE == Isis and the Taliban are brutally carving up modern Afghanistan == “Sometimes I would leave work at 9 or 10 o’clock but I was afraid to go home. I would check the time and if it was 10 o’clock I would call my wife, and then I would sleep at the office or at the American embassy.” When Supreme Group ended its operations in Afghanistan, Mr Faqiri found himself without work and at greater risk. “The Taliban said to me ‘Now this company is gone, if you don’t join us, what will happen to you?’ This was a warning. I was afraid and so I ran away to [Europe]. Only my mother and wife are left in Afghanistan.” His journey to Greece also took months. Of the 148,000 refugees to arrive in Greece in the past three months, more than a quarter are from Afghanistan. Whilst originally accepted as refugees, Afghans are increasingly being seen as “economic migrants” fleeing poverty, rather than war or persecution, and therefore not afforded the same rights and protection as refugees.

Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia have all closed their borders to Afghans. As a result, many thousands now find themselves trapped. Greece’s own asylum system is dramatically understaffed and unable to process the huge number of asylum claims being lodged. It can take years for a decision. The leaked EU document is seen by many as a threat to their safety. “I thought in Europe there would be respect for me, but there is no respect for Afghans,” said Mr Zaher. READ MORE == Stop refugees or we'll stop aid, Germany tells Afghanisan == He finds the notion that Afghanistan is safe and so Afghans are merely economic migrants insulting. “This is the wrong opinion of Afghan people, that they come to Europe only for work,” he said. “Yes, I want to work, yes, I want to earn money, but I’d rather have a job in Afghanistan – it would be better for me. But I can’t go there, I am in danger. I am not an economic migrant!” With all borders out of Greece now closed to Afghans, the options for them are bleak. Either exploit the smugglers’ routes over the mountains into Macedonia, a route that is both expensive and dangerous, accept voluntary repatriation to an unstable Afghanistan, or remain in limbo. Mr Zaher realises that ultimately his fate is not up to him. “We don’t know what to do now. We are confused,” he says. “What we should do? Where do we go? Albania? Turkey? Afghanistan? We don’t know. This choice belongs to the European countries. Whatever decisions they make decides my future.”