- Abdul Saboor, 25, is a native of the Afghan region of Nangrghar, in the south of the country. It is the raw testimony of young people who have been born in the war and have seen nothing else. Since he had nothing else to do with the United States Army and worked for NATO in Afghanistan, he was offered a peaceful life that never arrived and now those countries have closed the borders. He has arrived in the Basque Country about three months ago, after two years of flight, after leaving the house for reasons of war.
Why did you decide to leave Afghanistan?
I started working very young. The army of the United States of America and NATO came to my region and I worked for six years for them. There was nothing else. He was the coordinator of the task force collecting the tanks that Al Qaeda or the Taliban exploded, the shattered tanks that we brought to the military base. I decided to quit the job and went to the service that the U.S. Army has for those like me. There they promised us that by working for them they would take us to the United States, far from the war, but that day never came, they told me that they were always processing the papers. Despite knowing that I was working for the United States Army, until then the Taliban had never ‘touched’ my family. But the funny thing is, from the moment I stopped working for the United States and NATO, the Taliban started killing family members. I knew that I would be killed because I had left my job, that the Americans would never protect me. My mother is heart-sick, so she told me to leave, that I could not suffer my death.
So can you understand that everyone has the same master?
I can't talk much about this. Responding to the previous question, I met with a group in Kabul to flee from Afghanistan. We went to find a trafficker and told us that for a great deal of money it would bring us to Europe in 15 days. We first went to Pakistan and then to Iran, but I stopped and spent a month in jail. It was very hard, I saw people starving to death in jail, we were constantly being beaten and many prisoners died. From there they sent me back to Afghanistan.
Back to the beginning.
Yeah, I decided to try my luck with another drug dealer. In Pakistan, Iran and then I arrived in Turkey. Sometimes we would go on a bike, but most of the time we would pass the limits by walking or running down the mountain. We lost friends along the way, but the traffickers told us not to look to run. When we were in Turkey, the traffickers robbed us of all the money we had and kidnapped us to ask for more money from the family. After paying more, we spend hours on foot from the mountain to Bulgaria. Bulgaria's was also very violent. We were picked up by the police at the border, all the clothes were taken away and we were beaten endlessly, my arm was broken and, of course, I was not taken to the doctor. We were thrown into Turkey and, although we crossed the border again, a few days later the police arrested us again and beat me in the broken arm again and again as I was screamed “the disgusting Afghan terrorist”. After that, I was taken to a closed refugee camp, but I managed to escape.
How did he do that?
They're like jails, but it's pretty straightforward. There are also traffickers in closed camps, and they have a special room for them. They live in good condition and the whole camp knows who the traffickers are.
Also the government and the police?
Yes, of course. It is impossible not to know. There's a direct connection, it's a big business. Refugees use us politically, they use our situation to fill our pockets. In this dark network, the complicity of governments and police cooperation is essential, otherwise there would be no traffickers.
How did you feel when you reached the closed borders of the European Union?
It was much harder for me than it was for my friends. Keep in mind that I worked for NATO for 6 years, I played life every day working for various armies in Europe, because of that they told me continuously that I would live far from war, they called me brother… all of that has turned my head when the police beat me at the borders or called me “the horrible terrorist”. I feel betrayed and managed, we don't import a cumin. The governments here in Afghanistan do a big business by exploiting the entire country and selling arms, that's the only thing they've brought us and we are empty pieces of their big business. In Afghanistan, the Taliban and Daesh want us to kill us because we are not “good Muslims”, while the European Union closes the door for us because we are “Muslim terrorists”.
You spent a year in Serbia, surviving in the barracks of
Belgrado.El hell was last year’s winter. In order not to freeze to death we used old firewood, but the smoke was very contagious. We had no water, many had raised it, they were sick… About a thousand people survived in this situation. When I see the winter photos of Belgrade I always cry.
How many times did he try to cross the border of the European Union?In a
year, more than twenty times I tried to cross the wall of Hungary and Croatia. On every occasion, the police pillaged them, pulled out all the clothes, threw them into the snow and left their dogs to bite us. After we were tortured, they made selfies with us before we were thrown into Serbia. Friends disappeared, drowned or died in the river. Nobody knows what has happened to them, the bodies have never appeared, but all this is happening in the European Union, even though no one wants to see or accept them.
“Government complicity and police collaboration are essential, otherwise
there would be no traffickers”
In the end he managed to cross the border and has now made the request for asylum.
I have asked for it through an institution in Barcelona, but today it is very difficult to give political asylum, the governments do not want us to be here. The best thing I have ever known in Europe and in the Basque Country is the solidarity of the citizens. I do not expect anything from politicians. I know better than anyone what they do in countries like Afghanistan, I know very well what the dark business they do “in the name of democracy and human rights”.
How can all of this be stopped?It must be clear
that the ultimate goal is not for us to cross borders, nor for us to be separated in several countries. We have to go to the base We run away because our countries are at war, because they kill us. The governments here must be called upon to stop the wars they are waging in our peoples. The European Union puts a lot of money into border building and pays the police to ‘take care of’ them. If they were to use that money to end wars, we would not be faced with this refugee crisis. We have to stop the war and the war business, and so we don't have to escape our homes. It is clear to me that if the war in Afghanistan were to end tomorrow, I would return to my country tomorrow.