June 18, 2021

Seeking life on treacherous routes of migration

topic:	Migration
located:	Afghanistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Seeking solicitude on treacherous routes of migration, the war generation of Afghans, born and raised in the shadow of deadly violence, see no future or signs of peaceful existence in their country. 

Their quest for a safer and prosperous life continues to lure them away from their families and friends to distant lands; some embark on this journey at a very young age, all for the sake of higher chances of asylum approval. There would be hardly a single family in devastated towns and villages of Afghanistan where families are not torn apart by the war and migration.

One wonders when the warring factions in Afghanistan would realise that, as the prolific English writer Herbert George Wells once said, “If we don't end war, war will end us.”

Common Afghans are sick and tired of the war with no regard to the so-called ‘holy Jihad’ propagated by Taliban insurgents or the valiant defense of the nascent democracy, as the poor and marginalised people of the community remain the victims of this senseless war. 

A new study by the Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies has found that a majority of Afghans face serious problems satisfying food needs, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and raging war. It said most of the participants had to seek financial assistance and loans from their friends, relatives, colleagues and communities (47.9 percent) during the lockdown.

Now, consider that in the context of a family that has borrowed money or sold land and savings to pay for a member’s migration costs, and eventually that person either lost his life to the hazards of the journey or got deported. Alas, there have been hundreds of thousands of such cases.

The study also found that most Afghans were not satisfied in terms of the provision of treatment services, referral and ambulance services, death management services or food and essential needs to poor families by the government during the pandemic.

Afghans from various walks of life have been peddling a robust social media campaign titled 'Stop Afghan War', as the country grapples with mounting coronavirus infections and deaths against the backdrop of ensuing violence. They want to make the world and people within the country realise that the toxic mix of raging violence and the COVID-19 pandemic has further devastated Afghanistan.  

Their voices must be heard.

Image: United Nations Human Rights.