The concern and pain of Afghan refugees at the advance of the Taliban
Fighters wave the Taliban flag in the city of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, August 13, 2021. © AFP -
Text by: Lou Roméo Follow
12 mins
As the fundamentalist group continues its conquest of Afghanistan and the American forces withdraw, the Afghan refugees are watching the situation with anguish from a distance.
And the impression of an inexorable step backwards.
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“
I am really worried for my daughter and my granddaughters in Kabul, for their life and their future in Afghanistan,
” says Ouria. From her home in Toronto, this refugee has her eyes riveted on her television screen. Minute after minute, day after day, she witnesses the advance of the Taliban towards the Afghan capital. Since the announcement by Joe Biden of the withdrawal of American troops by August 31,
their breakthrough has accelerated.
Thursday August 12, the second and third cities of the country, Kandahar, in the south, and Herat, in the west, came under their control, followed the next day by the city of Pul-e-Alam, barely 50 kilometers from Kabul.
Half of the 34 provincial capitals
are already in their hands, and nothing seems to be able to stop their march on the capital, transformed into a
huge refugee camp.
2.5 million Afghan refugees in the world
For Ouria and her daughter Malwa, who arrived in Canada in 2016, the situation has a painful air of déjà vu. "
The situation is the same as before 2001
," moans Ouria on the phone
. The story repeats itself. In the provinces under their control, they are closing schools again, burqas are emerging from the closet. My daughter quit teaching at university. She is in Kabul with her husband and their three young daughters. I don't know how to get them out of the country. They are locked in their homes, terrified, all countries refuse them visas.
"
In 40 years of war, Afghanistan has become the country with the most refugees outside its borders.
Currently,
nearly 2.5 million are
scattered around the world, according to figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
But while the UN says
Afghanistan is on track to experience the highest number of civilian casualties on
record in a single year, the international community remains divided over its welcome policy.
►
See also:
Europe: an obsolete right to asylum in the face of the situation in Afghanistan?
If the United States issues “
Special Immigrant Visa
” to army staff, it remains difficult to leave the country despite the danger.
In Europe, where they represent 10% of asylum seekers each year,
France
, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland have announced that they are suspending deportations of Afghans in an irregular situation.
The Belgian, Danish, Greek and Austrian authorities have announced that they want to maintain them.
Faced with the influx of refugees, Turkey has even started
the construction of a concrete wall
on its border with Iran.
"
A return to square one
"
“
The reception policy of other countries has hardened. That makes no sense,
protests from Kabul Victoria Fontan, professor of peace studies and conflict resolution at the American University of Afghanistan.
All Afghans who have believed in Western liberal ideas since 2001 want to leave. In the districts controlled by the Taliban, they are experiencing a return to square one. The Taliban have guaranteed a general amnesty, but the abuses are cascading.
"
This is what alarms Chabnam, a refugee in Strasbourg for three years. “
I'm not afraid for myself, but for my brother
,” she explains.
He is a translator, and the Taliban are killing those who have worked with foreigners and the government. I am also worried about my sister, who is a teacher
. The young woman is unable to communicate with her family, because of electricity and Internet cuts. If the Taliban enter Kabul, possession of a computer will be prohibited. Without news, she remembers the five years in power of the Taliban, between 1996 and 2001.
She was 11 at the time and had to quit school overnight.
“
A teacher secretly taught us for two years,”
she recalls.
We were seven little girls secretly going to her house, three times a week.
But one day the Taliban arrested her and she committed suicide in prison.
The girl then remained in hiding at home for six months.
“
The Taliban forced single women to marry them from the age of 12.
It terrified us all
.
We hid to avoid them.
And it will start again.
"
"I have the impression that the Afghans are alone"
For this woman who graduated from the Polytechnic University of Kabul, the last twenty years have however left their mark.
“Afghan women are not the same as they used to be
,” she says.
They are much more active, they have studied, played sports, they have set up small businesses
.
If the Taliban regain power, they are going to have to stop everything, again. It's too much. They won't take it.
"
Zaher shares the same anguish for his relatives back home.
Responsible for the cultural association of the Afghans of Strasbourg, he arrived in France at the end of the 1970s, just before the war broke out in his country without ever stopping since.
The man is angry.
“
I am deeply sad and deeply shocked by the indifference of the world
,” he exclaims.
I have the impression that the Afghans are alone, that they are looked at with indifference.
When Europe feels under attack, we talk about a common fight against fundamentalism.
But when the Afghans need help, there are no more beautiful theories.
"
"
They want to do battle"
Like
the 3.3 million internally displaced Afghans
, her family has been forced to flee the fighting. Now refugees in Kabul, his relatives have abandoned their town of Herat in the west of the country.
Despite its resistance
, the city of 460,000 inhabitants came under Taliban control on August 12. Its legendary warlord, Ismail Khan, a veteran of the fight against the Red Army and then against the Taliban in the 1990s, has this time given up. “
What is the international community waiting for?
Zaher protests.
Do the Taliban have to bring their violence back to Europe for countries to react? We do not have the right to let a group without principle or dignity flout an entire civilization!
"
Especially since according to Victoria Fontan, the situation is likely to be worse than before the American intervention of 2001. “
The 'new' Taliban grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan and many are foreigners, is
alarmed. she does.
We are in a movement of the "Islamic State" type, facing combatants who grew up on the margins of Afghan society and who are completely opposed to the population. They want to do battle. The American occupation has a lot to do with it: it has not been able to carry out reconciliation.
"
For the researcher, the original failure dates from 2001, when the fallen Taliban were excluded from the negotiations of the Bonn agreements, putting in place the first provisional government.
"
And the Americans have started again, negotiating in Doha with the Taliban and not with the Afghan government,"
she laments.
How can we negotiate peace agreements by excluding some of the belligerents?
"
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