TEHRAN, Iran - After the fall of Kabul cemented the Taliban’s control of Afghanistan in August, 23-year-old Ramazan Ali took his father’s savings and fled the country in a bid to reach Europe, alongside hundreds of thousands of similarly desperate Afghans. His attempt failed, and he is stuck in Iran with little hope for his future.
Despite paying smugglers to assist his journey, Ali, originally from the city of Ghazni in Afghanistan, was arrested on the Iran-Turkey border along with 12 other people, where he was beaten by Turkish border guards. Almost freezing to death, he ran out of money and has remained in Iran since, where he survives on piecemeal manual labor.
“In the past years, the Taliban and the government were still at war in our areas, we were hoping that the situation would get better, my father was a farmer and we were five siblings. I was the oldest one,” Ali told Rudaw English. “The situation got worse, and when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, I decided to take my father’s savings and come to Iran, through which I was planning to go to Turkey and then Europe.”
He was not alone. As you walk the streets of central and eastern Iranian cities, you will come into contact with thousands of Afghan migrants who have run from war and instability. Many of them reside in the cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, Tehran, and Semnan; often, they work in construction fields with a lower salary.
According to the 2016 census, more than one and a half million Afghans lived in Iran in the middle of the decade, with many returning to their homeland following the economic crises. After the Taliban cemented control of the country, however, the number of Afghans in Iran once again increased.
Ali’s desperate journey from Afghanistan to Iran cost him $130.
“At the Afghanistan border, they put 35 people in a pickup truck and we were on the way for 16 hours,” he said. “At times, they would ask us to get off and walk a distance.”
Ali was then handed over to another smuggler, along with eleven other people. The smuggler was supposed to take them to Turkey for $1,000.
“After remaining in Urmia for a few days, we went to the border of Maku, it was a very cold night and after walking for two hours, Turkish border guards arrived,” Ali said. “They beat us up a lot and detained us, they released two other people and me at the Iranian border. It was very cold and we almost froze to death before we reached a village and slept in its mosque.”
Ali now works for $125 dollars a month, most of which he says he sends back to his family in Afghanistan, only keeping enough for his food. Along with other workers, he sleeps in the unfinished building he is working at and, despite the cold weather, has no other choice.
Iranian comments hurt us
“I have a two year old sister that I really miss, at night I cry because I miss her, but what can I do? I am just happy that I am able to send them money so that they do not starve,” Ali explained. “Iranians often do not treat us well and say that the Afghans have taken over our country. We do not like this situation, we are here because we had no other options.”
Many of the Afghan migrants who have been in Iran for years still suffer from racism in public places. They receive racial slurs from people on public transportation and in the city’s markets.
In general, finding Afghans in Iran who are willing to share their stories is difficult, because many are in the country illegally and are afraid of being caught. The rest spend their waking hours working to make ends meet.
.jpg "Nadir Ghorbani, an Afghan migrant selling pomegranate juice in Tehran’s grand bazaar on December 16, 2021. Photo: Jabar Dastbaz/Rudaw")
“I came to Iran 26 years ago with two of my brothers, we worked in different cities such as Mashhad, Semnan, Hamadan, and Tehran. I have worked many different jobs,” Nadir Ghorbani, a 46-year-old selling pomegranate juice at the grand bazaar of Tehran, told Rudaw English.
Ghorbani’s brothers had decided to attempt to reach Europe six years ago. While one of them reached Germany, his other brother drowned in the Aegean sea, somewhere between Turkey and Greece.
“My brother was tired of the Iranian treatment, he would always vent to me about how at his workplace the other workers would disrespect him and other Afghans, so he decided to gather his money and go, but after we lost contact for a few months, we found out he had died in the Aegean sea,” he said.
Ghorbani, who is married and has three children, is also tired of the disrespect he faces in the country.
“I am willing to give all my savings to someone to take my family and me out of here by plane, because I am tired of here. When I go to the bakery or on the bus or train, I hear people say, ‘these nasty Afghans have taken over Iran’,” he said. “I sell pomegranate juice and I get 200,000 tomans (around $6) a day. I am not preventing anyone from working.”
“There were times that people would come and I would give them juice and they would not pay because I am Afghan and cannot defend my own rights,” Ghorbani explained. “I have also met good people who have consoled me, but I have seen so much that I am tired of this country. Our relatives go from here to Turkey with a thousand dollars, and then from there to Europe with 9,000 dollars, but it is a dangerous path if you have family with you.”
With the increasing flow of Afghan migrants into Europe, Iranian smugglers are making a better living as well.
“I have been taking Afghans to Turkey for 20 years, and after the Taliban took control, Afghan migrants have increased and our job has gotten better, there are times where I do not sleep for multiple nights in a row,” Sarhad* a smuggler from Urmia told Rudaw English via telegram. “The price of taking an Afghan to Turkey is $1,000.”
Sarhad says that smugglers do not want anyone to fall into problems, although the risk is inevitably high. “There were times where I would hide 14 people in a car from Tehran to Turkey and they got there safely,” he said.” “However, sometimes there is a police ambush and we cannot do anything.”
“It is tiring but that is the smuggling job, some new smugglers are taking people’s money and fooling them and this has affected our reputation as well,” Sarhad explained, adding that while he charges migrants for his services, he will not exploit those most in need. Demand for his services does not appear to be reducing anytime soon.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
