On a summer’s day in August, the warning came.
The warning came when Ahmad Zabi was at home with his wife and five children. On the house phone, the student explained that the Taliban were looking for Zabi. The Taliban had arrived at a taekwondo lesson expecting to find him. Zabi, a taekwondo instructor, had been training the bodyguards of Dr Mohammad Najibullah, the former president of Afghanistan.Zabi lost no time. He said goodbye to his wife and children, the youngest not yet one, grabbed his wallet and fled his home forever. In the 90s, Afghanistan was torn between Afghan warlords, President Najibullah and the Taliban. Civil war was raging and the Taliban, who followed an extremist version of Islam, wanted to reunite Afghanistan under harsh Sharia law.Under the Taliban, it meant home inspections, no radios or televisions and the burning of books. Punishments included the amputation of a hand for theft, 80 lashes for drinking alcohol, death by stoning for adultery, and death for changing religion. Zabi headed north to Shakar Dara, the village of his birth, where he still had family. He stayed hidden for two months as his uncle helped him plan his escape from Afghanistan. His uncle arranged for him to stay with a friend in Pakistan while he secured the money to pay for his passage to Europe. At a cost of roughly £7,000, a smuggling agency would supply him with a fake Pakistani passport so he could fly to Kenya. Once there, they would arrange a counterfeit Swedish passport and finally a flight from Tanzania to the UK. A few months later, Zabi crossed the Kenyan-Tanzanian border by bus, which meant a stamp could be placed in his newly acquired Swedish passport. He couldn’t speak English, but contacts from the smuggling agency were always with him. In Tanzania, he was provided with a bogus girlfriend to get him through security at the airport. From Dar-es-Salaam, Zabi boarded his British Airways flight to London Gatwick. He arrived at 5am in the morning, 17 November, 1997. Zabi went on to claim asylum in the UK as a refugee.BACKGROUND
Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality in the world. A woman in Afghanistan on average has five children. The majority of the population are under 55 years old, with 42% of the population under 15.
Most of the population (nearly 80%) work in agriculture, with an economy heavily reliant upon foreign aid. Conversely, it is the world’s largest producer of opium, used for the production of heroin and morphine.
With rugged mountains and beautiful landscapes, and the former home of the 53ft Bamiyan Buddhas, Afghanistan should be a tourist destination, but fighting has consumed its history.
In 1979, Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union, and nine years of war followed, but civil war had begun previously and continued after Soviet troops had left. The factions fighting for control of Afghanistan included the mujahedeen (Afghan warlords) and the Taliban.
In 2001, after the Taliban failed to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the US led coalition invaded Afghanistan.
Afghans are the largest group of refugees in the world, with a refugee crisis spanning more than 30 years.
The Afghan community is the UK is largely based in west and north-west London, with large communities in Harrow, Barnet, Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow. The 2011 census showed that the Afghan population in England and Wales was 72, 970. In 2001, seven out ten Afghans in Great Britain lived in London.
Zabi arrived in the UK at a time when Afghanistan was known principally as the home country of ‘the girl with the green eyes’ - the famous cover of National Geographic magazine and when September 11 was an ordinary date in the calendar. But 9/11 changed the world and the subsequent invasion into Afghanistan made Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and radicalisation familiar parts of the British language.
Now 13 years after they entered the country in the aftermath of 9/11, British troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan. And while the debate over the longer term stability and future of the country continues, for Zabi and other Afghan refugees living in the UK, 2014 marks another year in a foreign land , one a long way from their home, both geographically and culturally. While their home has been stricken by long years of war and unrest, they have struggled to start new lives and find new roles for themselves in unfamiliar circumstances. Many have traded life in one of the most poor and largely rural countries in the world for the very different environment of the outer London suburbs.
On TV, refugees are the queues of people with blank eyes that look searchingly towards the camera with scarce belongings. But refugees can also be the strangers in the street, the neighbours next door and the jobless in the unemployment queue. Akin to an autumn wind, blowing dried leaves across the ground, a scattered identity permeates the Afghan refugee existence. A range of issues affect their ability to settle and start new lives:
-----Shabnam Nassimi, Women Engagement Officer for the Afghanistan and Central Asia Association
When you say you’re from Afghanistan they instantly think Taliban or they instantly think terrorists, uncivilised, undeveloped, stupid… They don’t go beyond that stereotype. Just because I’m from there, doesn’t mean I’m different from you or from anyone else. My language may be different; my culture may be different but also so is yours. You speak a different language, you also have your own culture…Just because the media gives you one perspective doesn’t mean you need to judge that everyone is the same.
-----Farid Mall, Director of Paiwand, Afghan Association
You never feel 100% at home but of course that depends on how you quickly you adapt, how quickly you learn the language and the culture.
The importance of family in Afghan culture cannot be underestimated. Family equate to survival. In countries such as Afghanistan where law and order and justice cannot be assumed, it is the family who supply money or weapons, who help out when situations get dangerous, unstable, or volatile. It is the family who arrange marriages and find obedient brides who will follow the instructions of the elders in the family. It is the family who decide what you should study and what job you should do- becoming a doctor, lawyer or following in the line of your parents. In Afghan culture it is not about ‘I’, it is about ‘we’. The family comes first.But this principle acts as a barrier against the outside world. Instead of confronting loneliness and social isolation by integrating more into the society, the principle-the family comes first, promotes further withdrawal and distance from Western society.
The family home is seen as a place where Afghan traditions can be preserved. Outside the home, British culture may exist in all its foreign forms, but at home the Afghan way of life can continue. From language to food to family hierarchy and Islamic culture, the Afghan identity can be passed on to the next generation. But British values have crept in, seeping through the family home like a cold wind, disrupting family life.
There is no sanction for beating children in Afghanistan or any social services department to take children away from poor parents. Women and children are expected to follow what their husband and father says. This is part of the cultural and religious norm.Women have fewer rights than men in Afghanistan. During the Taliban years, women were not allowed to leave the house on their own, receive an education or work. Men governed their lives and opposition meant violence.In the UK, wives and young children have quickly learnt that they have the right to be heard. Social services and the police will defend them. Wives formerly beaten in Afghanistan separate from their husbands and both wives and children say no - to the surprise and anger of their husbands and fathers.
The younger generation speak English as their first language and males and females mix freely together- no longer following gender rules on separation or roles. They learn about different cultures at school, form wider friendships and increasingly want their own social lives, independent from their families. Parents struggle to integrate into the society due to language difficulties and the desire to maintain a strong Afghan identity. Parents refuse to speak to their children in English, so children learn Dari or Pashto.
A report by the Afghan Association of London in 2011 found that 25% of Afghan users felt fluent in English, in comparison to 81% in Dari and 41% in Pashto- the two main languages of Afghanistan. Dari, Pashto and English are being taught at Afghan groups and associations across London, but there is concern about the time it takes to learn English at college providers.There are 5 levels for English Speakers of Other Languages in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Progress in a language depends on how many hours are offered by providers as well how much English is spoken outside of class. So if it takes a year to move up a level, then a refugee may need 5 years of English before they reach Level 2 (GCSE English Grade C).
Farid Mall, from Kabul, has been in the UK for 16 years and is a founder of Paiwand, an Afghan organisation that helps refugees and migrants in north London. Mall describes the intergenerational conflict between parents and children. Mall said: “They don’t know about homeland culture, and we don’t know about the new culture…In Afghanistan, children are children, they have no rights. They have to follow what is said by an adult but most importantly by the father”. This clash in culture means that Afghan fathers go from being the most respected person in the family, to a loss in their social role and identity. As Mall puts it “here, no one cares about them”. Paiwand run parenting courses to help address this and to offer help with positive parenting. But due to the traditional role in Afghan culture of women as housewives and husbands as breadwinners, men rarely attend. This means that fathers are left without the skills needed to parent their increasingly Western children.
For Afghan men, work may be working in a chicken and chip shop, in pizza delivery or as a taxi driver. But many Afghan refugees are qualified professionals who are unable to get work in their fields. Afghan refugees who are qualified doctors can struggle with a lack of confidence-the longer they stay out of work and out of practice. Without medical experience in the UK, they are unable to get references from British employers. There is also the matter of financial costs. Doctors need to pass language and clinical ability tests which can total £570. They then need to register with the General Medical Council which costs £390. Refugees can get discounts with the GMC, but tests and registration can still be a costly affair if the tests are not passed after two attempts. In 2009, the Refugee Council set up a Health Professionals Programme to help refugee doctors get the practice they need to prepare for the Professional Linguistic Assessment Board tests.The programme also helps doctors to gain work experience in NHS hospitals. Any doctor from overseas who wishes to work in the UK must pass the PLAB tests. PLAB tests check that doctors have the medical skills and knowledge to work in the UK.During 2012-2013, the programme enabled 28 refugee doctors to take PLAB tests, and provided 25 clinical attachments. It also saw 21 refugee doctors become paid doctors
Helal, 30, is an Afghan refugee on the Health Professionals Programme. He had worked for the British army as an interpreter, but wanted to become a doctor. He was seen as a traitor for helping the British army, so he decided to do his medical training in Turkey. Helal then returned to Afghanistan hoping to set up a medical clinic, but his life was still at risk for helping the ‘infidels’ (non-Muslims). In fear of his life he made his way to the UK. But in the UK he has been unable to work as a doctor. First, he has to pass the academic version of the IELTS exam, an English language test that has cost him £145 per go. This test proves that a doctor has the minimum level of English needed to work in the UK. Afterwards, Helal has to pass the PLAB tests, before he can start work. He needs the work. Helal said: “My mother and sister are currently in a refugee camp in Pakistan and I’m very worried about them. The conditions there are not good. Hopefully when I re-qualify as a doctor, I will be earning enough money to bring them to the UK.”
There are bodies set up to help. The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics(CARA) set up in 1933 during the expulsion of academics and professors from Nazi Germany assists refugees who were formally researchers or lecturers in their home country. They also offer advice and support to help refugees who are doctors, dentists, or teachers work in the UK. The Employability Forum based in north London also supports refugees with a healthcare background into work, as well as helping finance professionals and engineers. Stephen Wordsworth, Executive Director for CARA said: “All too often, people see refugees as people who just ‘take’. In fact, many have a fantastic amount to give. Those whom CARA has helped, over more than 80 years, to make a new start in the UK include sixteen Nobel Prize winners… Still today, many of those we are helping will become leaders in their academic fields, either here or, if they can return home one day, in their own countries.”
Isar Sarajuddin, 37, from Hayes is currently doing a PHD on taxation and state building in post conflict countries at the School of African and Oriental Studies. He grew up in Afghanistan and is an economist and former Chief of Staff for the Governor’s office at the Central Bank in Kabul. He believes that the well-being of refugees comes from having a job. He explained: “As a refugee, once you’re employed, once you’re within the market, once you feel you’re a part of the community, and once you feel that you are productive, like a normal citizen, then you feel very honoured. You feel like you are in your own home country”. Sarajuddin believes that refugees bring hidden capital to their new country, but that too often they’re seen as “luggage”.
RAISING AWARENESS
Jess Linton is the UK Refugee Co-ordinator for Refugee Week, an annual event that celebrates the contribution refugees make to the UK. Last year over 75,000 people took part in events across the Britain. 2014 is dedicated to children and young people. But from going into schools, Linton believes that a lot more needs to be done to raise people’s awareness of refugees and their experience of life in the UK.Linton said: “Refugees to me are absolutely incredible people… They are some of the most resilient and inspiring people that I have ever met. I really do feel that not only should we welcome them in the UK, but that we should celebrate them and what they have to offer.” In 1951, (and subsequently in 1967) the UN defined a refugee as a person who has fled due to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”
In 2007, UNHCR launchedAgainst All Odds, (in English) an online interactive game based on the refugee experience. Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for UNHCR explained the reasoning behind the game, he said:“ The refugee story is a very compelling and important story and because it’s a human interest story it lends itself to being adapted in different forms” The UNHCR makes use of a YouTube channel, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook to raise awareness and support.
War in a country causes people to leave their homes. But when are they a migrant and when are they a refugee? Paul Flynn Labour MP for Newport West is a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. He believes there are only a small minority of Afghan refugees living in the UK, who have genuinely been at risk of losing their lives if they stayed in Afghanistan. He believes that most come to the UK looking for a better life. He said: “The great majority are economic migrants who present themselves as asylum seekers because that is the most likely way to gain residency here. There is a large supportive group of Afghans in London who give aid and work to their countrymen”. Flynn expects an increase of asylum applications from Afghans after the withdrawal of British troops, citing the increase in applications after the British withdrawal from Iraq.
But Mall’s career as a lawyer was halted with the capture of Kabul, in 1996 by the Taliban. He explained the difference between being a migrant and a refugee, he said: “Being a refugee means that you have to start from zero. Migrants come prepared, refugees are forced to come and it’s not your choice where you go, so you go to the country as I came with zero language skills. I had to learn English… I am still trying to pick it up after 14-15 years… So being a refugee is learning new skills, and a new language but you can’t apply the full potential you might have.”London Enriched, the refugee integration strategy started by the Mayor of London and the London Greater Authority has understanding and speaking English as its top priority.
In 2009, 46% of Afghan applications for refugee status were from unaccompanied minors.Unaccompanied minors usually have parents back in Afghanistan who have chosen to have their children smuggled out of the country, for fear of their safety or with the hope that they’ll be able to start a better life. Parents pay professional smugglers thousands of dollars on a hazardous journey to get their children to the UK.If they make it to the UK, unaccompanied minors are placed in foster care until they are 16. After this, they make the move to semi-independent living with the support of social services, local authorities and multi-agencies.This transition from adolescent to adult begins by covering issues such as life skills, education, employment, health and migration. Rafi Fazil, a Housing Project Manager for unaccompanied minors said: “It’s a steep learning curve after they move from foster care to semi-independent living. Everything is being done for them in foster care including cooking. Once they move in they require intensive support to be able to look after themselves.”
But minors are not only responsible for themselves, they often responsible for the financial well-being of their families back home. Afghan minors who have been given temporary stay risk being sent back to Afghanistan when they reach 18. There, they face the risk of being recruited by criminal gangs or the Taliban.With some unaccompanied minors the only breadwinner for their families, the fear of being sent back fills them with guilt and shame. They cannot afford to get an education in the UK, because they need to work, but without this, with high unemployment in Afghanistan, their chances back home are slim. In the UK, without an education they work in low paid jobs as they walk the tightrope between youth and adulthood.
In 2009, the Refugee Council and Cricket for Change started the Refugee Cricket Project. The cricket team is made up mostly of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan. The cricket team helps the young people to build up their confidence and to adjust to life in the UK. Abdul, who has benefitted from the project, was 14 when he was smuggled out of Afghanistan. His father had been an interpreter for western forces, which had made his family a target for the Taliban. When Abdul’s father and brother disappeared, word reached Abdul that his brother’s throat had been slit. The rest of Abdul’s family, anxious to keep Abdul from a similar fate had found an agent that could smuggle him out of the country. After a dangerous journey with different smugglers, Abdul found himself in London in 2008. Abdul, 20 said: "When I arrived in the UK I was scared; I didn’t want to tell people what had happened to me; you can’t trust people straight away… The Refugee Cricket Project has made me more confident. It’s like our home. When we’re not here, my friends and I are thinking about our past” This past may be a particularly turbulent one, research conducted by Oxford University found that roughly a third of unaccompanied minors were likely to be suffering from post-traumatic disorder.
In 2002, a national population based mental health survey was carried out in Afghanistan by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. It found that 73% of the population had symptoms of depression, 84% of women anxiety, and 48% post traumatic syndrome disorder. Men had lower percentages (58% anxiety and 32% post traumatic syndrome disorder). These are just some of the mental health conditions being brought to the UK by refugees, but stigma is a big issue. Dr Ghulam Farooq worked for 18 years at the Kabul Medical University, specialising in public health and working with the UN. He came to the UK in 2012 and works as a Mental Advocacy Project Manager for Paiwand in north London, he said: “Stigma cannot help people with mental health problems. The best approach is to help people seek good quality professional support.” Depression and anxiety are the main mental health issues in the community. Afghan refugees struggle with their identity, trying to locate who they are as they adjust to a new cultural background and as they attempt to reconcile their past with their future.Depression is the most common mental health problem for young people aged 25-34. Suicide is forbidden in Islam but that doesn’t stop Afghan Muslims struggling with suicidal thoughts, even though their religion acts as a deterrent. Issues such as domestic violence or rape are seen as family matters which are not discussed. Afghans, who try to express what they are contending with, do so governed by their culture and religion.
Dr Farooq explained: “There are some specifics signs and symptoms that are specifically related to Afghans. These are not different from the standard signs and symptoms but the way that they are expressing it is completely different”. In London, last year, the Mental Health Advocacy Project run by Paiwand and funded by City Bridge Trust, (the City of London’s charity) saw 213 people, with more than 60% women, and 33% aged 25-34. The programme is aimed at improving access for Afghan refugees to mental health services, done partly by training healthcare professionals to understand Afghan culture but also by raising awareness in the community. In Afghan culture, mental health is considered taboo and something to be kept hidden within the family. Dr Farooq illustrated the point: “If someone in my community is suffering from mental health diseases, which is more or less the same as another disease of an organ of the body, people call it ‘De wana’. Do you know what ‘De wana’ means? De wana means crazy.” “Suppose there is a very beautiful, educated, single girl in a family, but unfortunately her brother is suffering from schizophrenia and a young person wants to get engaged to this girl. If he asks his mother and father to support the engagement, the first answer is ‘Oh no, her brother is crazy. Your children will be born like that’.
The Afghan diaspora have watched their country disintegrate outside their homeland. Glimpses of hope have been shattered by fresh attacks from the Taliban and electoral wrangling.As they struggle to assimilate in the UK, they still worry about the future of their home country, where most still have families and friends. Mall, who left Mazar-e-shrarif before a mass slaughter of the city in 1998, is concerned about the strength of the Afghan army and that they are not fully prepared to manage security on their own. He looks at Iraq and wonders if the same turmoil could break out in Afghanistan. In Iraq, he sees “everything collapsing and everybody running away.” But the future is tinged with sadness. As their children finish, university and start their new careers, the older generation feel abandoned. As Mall puts it the younger generation“ have their own life”.
Shabnam Nassimi, 23, and a law graduate is the Women’s Engagement Officer for the Afghanistan and Central Asia Association, a charity based in South London. Her parents moved from the Ukraine. Nassimi said “I’ve spent almost 14-15 years here. Almost all my life here, I’ve grown up here, I’ve made friends, I have family. Though it’s not my own country it is my second home, and in a way it’s not my second home. I wasn’t born in Afghanistan, I’ve only visited so I can’t go back and say it’s my first home either. I’ve lived in so many different countries that it’s hard for me to say a particular place is my home, but I think Britain is, it’s the most closest to saying it’s where my foundation is, and where I’ve built up a close network”
The future for Afghan refugees in the UK is tied up with the next generation. The majority of refugees who came to the UK in the 90s are now British citizens. Their asylum concerns are over. Now they share the same concerns as the rest of the British public: housing, education and the economy. So whatever happened to Zabi? 17 years on, his family have joined him in the UK. Three children have completed university, with two children currently studying accountancy and law. Zabi speaks English and his wife is learning. He continues to work as a martial arts instructor, reflecting on how his life has changed he said: “We are all happy and have a good life”. Zabi is fortunate, for others there is an Afghan saying that sums up their experience: “I am here, but my heart is overseas.”