Golden Dreams!

Today Afghan People are trying to move past a bad situation. Every day and everywhere they have explosions, attacks, murder, self-immolation, violence, rape and many kinds of crimes. Instead of finding any solution for that, many of Afghan People prefer to leave Afghanistan and immigrate to other countries. They hope to make a new life with lots of happiness for themselves and they just see golden dreams about their lives, but their dreams don’t come true, except for the few who have good luck. They think that when they leave our country, they will open a new window in their lives which will change their lives completely and bring happiness for them. So, every year from each house one or two persons goes abroad for an unknown destination.

·         Finding Money:

Many of Afghan people believe that if we leave Afghanistan we will find a better life or wealth, because they are tired of all of the wars, and insecurity. They accept every kind of risk and damages to leave Afghanistan even if they lose their lives. Many of them sell their fields, gardens, farms and houses for finding enough money. They don’t care that what will happen to their families and don’t pay attention to their parents and family’s appeals. Some of them work for three or four years for making money or borrow from wealthy people.

·         Waiting for Passport:

When they find enough money, at that time they go to Pakistan and they need Pakistani passports, because with Pakistani passport they can only go to Indonesia. So, for taking the passports they wait for a long time, sometimes they wait for one year. At that time they use half of their money in Pakistan for feeding themselves, passport and more money for smugglers. But, sometimes some of them can’t get even a Pakistani Passport. Most of these people want to go Australia and London because these two countries accept more Afghan immigration.

·         An Uncertain Journey:

Each groups get prepared for an uncertain journey. They try to find the smartest and most experienced smugglers who know about maps and every kind of danger. So they start their trip with lots of worries and apprehensions. They actually know how dangerous it is, but they accept it. But sometimes on the way they are arrested by police and returned back to Afghanistan. Those who arrive there (Indonesia), they stay some days in hiding places like destroyed houses or some hotels. Then they try to find smugglers to help them and find a ship that they can go by that until Australia and New Zealand. Finding smugglers is very difficult and expensive.

·         Water Storm:

All passengers want to start the trip early in the morning, before starting the storms begin. When the ship is leaving the beach, all the passengers start praying and they start their trip with lots of fear and apprehension. Each of them are waiting to hear if the Captain will inform them that the ship got a gap or crevice. It’s the worst news that frightens them a lot. After several hours they understand that the ship got a crevice and the water is entering the ship. It’s a tragedy scene for passengers that ends all of their dreams and wishes. There are some lucky people who have life jackets; it’s the only thing that gives them a little hope. So, they should pass the rest of the way, just by swimming. After several hours the rescue ship comes and rescues those who are alive and takes them to the immigration camp.

M. Husain: He is one of my relative who has many experiences while he immigrated to Pakistan, Iran, Greece and Australia. He was the passenger of a ship which got a gap during the trip. Fortunately he had a life jacket to rescue himself. He said, “I swam more than 12 hours when the rescue ship arrived and saved me. I was confused about where I was and where is this place? I was very tired; I couldn’t even talk for some hours. Then I understood that I was at the immigration camp. I stayed there for three months, at first I thought that I would be accepted in Australia but, when the boards came, they told me and my friends that we couldn’t live in Australia. When you don’t respect your life, how can you respect our rules? Then they sent us back to Afghanistan”.

·         Living in the Immigration Camp:

There are different people from many countries with different behaviours and manners. The people need to be more careful and take care of themselves. Sometimes they are fighting because of a small problem and badly hurt each other. There are some people who stayed in the camp for a long time, even for 10/12 years. Some of the people got psychological problems during these long years. Just those people who passed the interview are accepted in Australia. Many of them return to Afghanistan because they can’t convince them that they have a bad situation in Afghanistan. After all of these difficulties they have to accept this humiliation too.

·         The Effects of Returning:

1. When Afghan people are not accepted in foreign countries, it has a deep and negative effect on them. Even it leads to self-immolation, hara-kiri and other crimes. Sometimes they can be dangerous for people and society, because they lose their hope and can’t find their way. I saw some people who were positive people before, but the immigration made them negative members of society.

2. Sometimes it has a positive effect on them, because they understand the benefit of their motherland and the worth of their society and people. At that time they prefer to live in Afghanistan and make their lives here.

In conclusion, I would like to say that our golden dreams will come true when we stay and live and work in our motherland, even if it’s not a developing or progressive country. The immigrants who passed the bad situation, they understand that our motherland is our golden dream. I hope that the people know the worth of their motherland and never try to leave it. Then they won’t be humiliated. They are respected and valued in their own country.

Writen by: Kamilah Ataee