Around tables in a Neoclassical constructing in central Athens, Greece, some Afghan ladies had been making notes in leather-bound notebooks as they debated the way forward for ladies and ladies of their homeland. They had been legislators, journalists and judges – however they had been additionally refugees, a personality a lot of them lived with disgrace and mistrust.
“It is not an easy thing for a woman working for 20 years to come here and be called a refugee,” mentioned Khatera Saeedi, a journalist.
The presence of Sayedi and different refugees in Athens delivered to thoughts a posh actuality for the 1000’s of individuals airlifted after the Taliban takeover: Afghan Europe needs those that by no means needed to dwell there.
“I had a great life in Afghanistan,” mentioned 31-year-old Wahida, an international-organization employee from Kabul, Afghanistan, who was taken to the Netherlands and who solely needed to be acknowledged by her first identify. It was tougher work, and I had by no means considered taking refuge out of the country.”
When Kabul fell into the arms of the Taliban in August, and Afghan elites moved to western locations, EU nations dedicated to soak up as much as 40,000, a lot of whom have already reached Europe.
Persian interpreter Karim Ganzi, left, and others with Melissa Network, a corporation that helps migrants and refugees, together with some former Afghan legislators, throughout a workshop on empowerment and trauma in Athens, Greece, the nation’s new Taliban authorities had fled. (new York Times)
Many are educated and expert sufficient to have been concerned with the huge worldwide presence that has outlined Afghan life for the previous 20 years – finally additionally giving them the connections to make their means overseas by way of reliable channels.
They stand in distinction to the 1000’s of others of their nation who’ve made their method to Europe’s doorstep in recent times – typically smuggled, typically on arduous land journeys of 1000’s of miles after which one remaining dangerous sea crossing. – Only to get away.
According to the European Asylum Assistance Office, Afghans have made essentially the most asylum requests within the European Union because the takeover of the Taliban. But even earlier than final 12 months, Afghans persistently turned one of many largest teams looking for asylum from overseas.
For a few years, they clashed behind the road, with their functions rejected in favor of refugees from extra pressing and near-term conflicts, corresponding to in Syria.
Afghans and Iraqis, each fleeing extended Western-led wars, face the identical difficulties as asylum seekers in Europe, mentioned Camille Le Coz, an professional on the Migration Policy Institute, a Brussels-based analysis institute working in Afghanistan. fell.
But the arrival of 1000’s of individuals from Kabul delivered to the floor a long-running present in EU migration coverage.
“This highlights the dichotomy that the EU is making an attempt to create between those that arrive in Europe to request asylum by way of a protected and authorized route and those that arrive by irregular means – and the latter. Not welcome,” she mentioned.
But these routes are closed to the overwhelming majority of refugees, a indisputable fact that forces 1000’s to succeed in Europe through harmful and dear smuggling routes.
In common, solely half of Afghans who utilized for asylum within the EU had been profitable. The acceptance fee rose to 91% within the remaining months of 2021, as EU evacuations had been fast-tracked by way of a usually sluggish asylum forms.
The Dutch authorities, which maintained a army presence in Afghanistan, swiftly granted asylum to the two,000 Afghans it had evacuated, however virtually stopped all claims by Afghans who had arrived randomly.
Athens is now the short-term house of about 170 outstanding Afghan ladies and their households, together with a 3rd of the nation’s feminine legislators, who had been deported there by a coalition of charitable foundations and will probably be resettled in Germany and different rich nations.
A gaggle of Afghan ladies, most of whom had been attorneys, judges or legislators of their nation and fled the brand new Taliban authorities, take part in a dialogue on the Melissa Network, a corporation serving to migrants and refugees, in Athens, Greece. (new York Times)
They have been gathering in central Athens on the Melissa Network, an NGO that helps feminine migrants and refugees. Melissa is providing them a each day sanctuary, a spot to fulfill and discuss, and manage authorized help and psychological well being workshops.
“There is a significant difference between the way these women became refugees and the experience of other refugees,” mentioned Melissa’s psychological well being specialist Thalia Portokaloglu. “They put pain and fear in all the women we work with here, but they also bring a purpose, which helps them find meaning in life.”
Legislators from amongst these expelled from Athens had been working to ascertain an exile group to advocate for the rights of Afghan ladies and, by way of this, to keep up their sense of identification and function.
Shagufa Noorzai, who was elected to parliament from Helmand province in 2019, mentioned, “I think of the people who came and cast their vote for me.” Taliban and hunger.
Most Afghans journey throughout Asia to Turkey and land themselves within the arms of smugglers to Greece, who put them on precarious dinghys to cross the Aegean Sea. If they handle to file an asylum request, they’ve to attend years in authorized and monetary bother till their claims are assessed.
Melissa has had this expertise with one other Afghan girl who was there to assist a brand new group of evacuated individuals: the group’s Persian interpreter, Karim Ganzi.
She arrived in Greece in 2016 after a dramatic overland journey in the course of winter, crossing mountains and rivers along with her two kids, then 3 and 9. Over the previous 5 years in Athens, she discovered English and Greek and enrolled in a college. in Athens. But his asylum request remains to be pending.
Ganzi mentioned she sympathizes with the group of outstanding ladies she was serving to, however added that different Afghans and different asylum seekers deserve extra assist.
“They came by bloodshed. They are left,” she said through tears. “I do not see them as politicians, as as a small group of harmless individuals in Afghanistan who need assistance.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
