Yasamin, young Afghan refugee in Istanbul: "At the Turkish border, they tortured the men"
Audio 03:18
Since the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, many Afghans have fled the country via Iran and arrived in Turkey (Photo illustration) AP - Giuseppe Distefano
Text by: Anne Andlauer
7 mins
Since the victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the West, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee their country.
Many are targeting Turkey, the last stop before Europe that we reach "via" Iran, at the end of a difficult and risky journey.
Yasamin is Afghan.
She is 19 and left Kabul just after the city fell.
She recounts her journey and her daily life in Turkey, made of confusion and fear.
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From our correspondent in Istanbul
,
We won't say, of course, that Yasamin was lucky. She dreamed of becoming a computer engineer in her country, Afghanistan. The Taliban's victory erased everything, shattered everything. But Yasamin is there, in a quiet cafe in Istanbul, Turkey, less than a month after leaving Kabul. For so many other Afghans who have remained in their country, it is already something that resembles a dream.
Yasamin was not evacuated.
Along with her 18-year-old brother - a year younger than her - she fled by road, two days after the Taliban entered her town.
In total, 4,500 kilometers between Kabul and Istanbul: “
We traveled by taxi to Tehran, in Iran.
It took five days.
Day and night in a taxi.
Then, from Tehran, again a taxi to Makou, not far from the Turkish border.
From there, to the border, we walked for three hours.
Me, my brother and many others.
There were 250 of us. It was so difficult.
My whole body ached.
"
► See also:
Afghanistan on the verge of humanitarian chaos
A grueling arrival in Turkey
Crossing this mountainous border between Iran and Turkey is his most painful memory. Not just the pain and physical fatigue… What she saw, too. Yasamin hugs the flaps of her sky blue scarf, which is tied loosely over her hair. “At
the border, we were arrested twice by Turkish gendarmes. They tortured the men. Since I'm a woman, they didn't do anything to me, they didn't do anything to my little brother either. But to the other men who were there, yes ... a lot
”. The young woman speaks of beatings to the body and to the head, with fists, feet, weapons, for more than half an hour, of gendarmes who shouted at the group of migrants: "
Go back to Iran!" Turkey is not your home!
"
Just after the border, Yasamin and his group arrive at Dogubeyazit.
There, smugglers handed them a bus ticket to Istanbul, the last stop on this journey which lasted a week.
In Turkey's largest city, Yasamin and his brother don't know anyone.
They meet an Uzbek, who offers them to share a studio in the basement of a dilapidated building.
Her brother finds a job in a poorly paid and undeclared textile workshop, since they entered Turkey illegally.
Lost in Istabul
Yasamin avoids going out: “
I am very scared when I see the police.
I wonder what I'm going to do if they arrest me and send me back to Afghanistan.
Once my brother got checked.
The police asked him where he was going, they asked him for his papers.
He said he had nothing and the police let him go.
It's a matter of luck.
Sometimes they stop.
Sometimes they let them go ...
"
Yasamin says she feels lost.
She doesn't understand Turkish, and no one around her speaks Dari or English.
The slightest mention of his family - his parents, his four brothers and sisters who remained in Kabul - mist his black eyes with big tears.
She assures us that she and her brother, as soon as they have enough money, will try to go to Europe.
► To read also: Afghanistan: "I receive calls from strangers who seek to know where I am"
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