“I am especially sorry for young people”
Afghan students and specialists living in Russia are afraid to return home, where obviously nothing good awaits them. Very young children in their homeland are in mortal danger. In Moscow alone, dozens of Afghans are now awaiting their fate under threat of deportation. Will Russia allow them to stay?
If the new Taliban government (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) is recognized by the Russian authorities as “tradable”, there will be no political reasons for the Afghans being detained.
Photo: AP
Saida I met Gulam Yasin three years ago. In Basmann's court. Where the question of his deportation from Russia was decided.
He has lived in our country since 1985.
Once the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the USSR signed an intergovernmental agreement, according to which 1,850 Afghan teenagers came to the Union. These children lived in boarding schools, learned the language and completely immersed themselves in our lives. As a result, the graduates will leave, hold senior positions and pursue a policy of loyalty to the Soviet Union.
Most of them were complete orphans, but among them were children of the Afghan army, officials and security officials. Their farewell was reported on national Afghan television, President Babrak Karmal saw teenagers at the airport.
But the teenagers could not return to their homeland. As now, the Mujahideen suddenly came to power in Afghanistan. The fate of their parents is still unknown; they were most likely executed; the same Yasin then looked for at least some distant relatives, but in vain. These former children themselves became enemies of the people overnight. So four of his boarding school friends disappeared and tried to return home.
It turns out that he was “stuck” in the Russian Federation for more than thirty years. All this time, Yasin had neither citizenship nor a temporary residence permit, nor a refugee certificate. To clarify his situation, he appealed many times to the Migration Department of the Ministry of the Interior, but was always rejected …
Said Gulam Yasin has been seeking refugee status for 7 years.
In general, Said Gulam Yasin's judicial trials lasted about seven years. “I've lost the number of trials I've been through, it's even scary to remember. I kept going with certificates, documents, not to be detained, to explain that I'm here legally, that there are courts and appeals. No one told me why I get rejection after rejection. “
It was not until the beginning of 2021 that Yasin finally obtained asylum in the territory of the Russian Federation.” I did not believe that it finally happened, there was joy and fatigue, joy that I could feel like a person “After all, I wasn't here either and I'm not even there,” he explains.
In fact, receiving the long-awaited asylum saved Yasin from possible deportation from Russia today. But now dozens of Russian Afghans are under a similar sword of Damocles. Despite the fact that Islamic fundamentalists were not in power until recently, they still watched the fates of those they considered their enemies and “traitors to their homeland”.
So now all these people are most likely not to expect anything good in their homeland.
“There will be ten people among my acquaintances who may be deported in the near future,” Gulam Yasin continues. – They don't know what to do. I recently met Afghan students who are in exactly the same situation. And he suffers as I once did. They came to study on the basis of a contract, but it turns out that they have nowhere to return. There is a war at home. And here it all depends on the decision of the migration services. Officials reassure them: everything will be fine with you, there is an embassy in Kabul, no one will kill you. But we all understand that these are just words.
– I can barely advise you, – Yasin sighs. – It all depends only on the position of Russia. Seeking temporary asylum, as I once did, is not the easiest option, but there is no other way out, otherwise torture and death.
“A cross has been placed on the future of Afghans”
History in Afghanistan has been constantly changing. And it never happened peacefully. Soon after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, rebel Mujahideen came to power.
In 96, the country was completely captured by Taliban terrorists. Then the Americans entered Afghanistan. And now there is a new castle. Is it random?
Photo: AP
“No one believed in the result that in just one week a Taliban armed with several thousand rifles will seize power in Afghanistan, we called our friends a month ago and everything was fine, yes, there was talk that hostilities could start the border, and that is “is due to the fact that the US will leave Afghanistan in September, but it was just rumors,” said Maiwand Abdul Ghani, a lawyer with the Civil Aid Committee (recognized as a foreign agent). He has lived in Russia since 1996, but has already acquired Russian citizenship. he also had refugee status.
“My family fled the country in the 1990s, when the Taliban came to power.” I was a child, – continues my partner. – I remember how we managed to leave our homeland in 24 hours. The parents rescued all four children. My father was a special services colonel, a well-known party leader, a communist, graduated from the KGB academy. It was obvious that they would come for us as well. Because my father's colleagues were abducted and killed, the guides did not spare. “
– Yes. I am especially sorry for young people. Who is from 25 to 35 years old. They were sincerely convinced that they had received an education, found a job, and their lives were improving. And now, with the rise of Islamic fundamentalists to power, a cross has been put into the future.
– So it is not possible to say immediately – who will be deported and who will not. If the Taliban are recognized by Russia as an official power in Afghanistan, there will be no obstacles to the expulsion of citizens living there. But most Afghans we work with do not have refugee status, they are all in this situation. Until September 30, this process will somehow be limited by outdated restrictions, people cannot be sent to another country due to coronavirus, but once these measures are lifted, nothing can prevent their deportation.
– Why? I think that in such a situation, any foreign citizen can apply for political asylum in their host country. In principle, it is not wrong to have refugee status. Both for life and for study.
However, various other factors may intervene here, which may complicate this process, the reasons why these people used to live here, or whether they went to court earlier. In any case, for three months, until the asylum issue is resolved, Afghans can legally stay in Russia. An appeal against a denial will also take some time. This means that they will be able to live here legally for a year or more.
– Canada recently announced that it is ready to receive 20,000 refugees, America – about 80,000, Europe does not refuse to help its compatriots.
– I don't believe they will be kinder. Its only a game. As a religious organization and a power that governs the state, they have probably grown up. Now they don't last, as before, to kill everyone in line. But sooner or later he will return to it.
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