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The Afghan people waiting for smugglers in Calais
By Sana Safi & Kawoon Khamoosh
BBC World Service
One year ago today, western countries led by the US pulled their troops out of Afghanistan, bringing an end to its longest war and 20 years of occupation.
The country was left in the hands of the Taliban and for the thousands of former government workers and security officers and their families who had been collaborating with international forces, they suddenly found themselves in fear of their lives. Many fled as refugees and still have no place to call home.
For their safety, all contributors names have been changed
"It's the first time I've ever seen the sea," says Rahmat.
Hailing from landlocked Afghanistan, 30-year-old Rahmat looks out across the channel waters. He watches the ships pass by the port of Calais.
But what should have been an exhilarating scene, his first time seeing an ocean, is crushed by fear.
Along with dozens of other Afghan men currently in Calais, Rahmat is waiting for a call from a smuggler, telling him it's time to cross.
"Looking out at the sea, it terrifies me. Like I'm staring death in the face," he says. "I wouldn't even be here if Afghanistan was safe."
According to the Home Office the number of Afghans trying to cross the channel to the UK has increased fivefold since the Taliban takeover this time last year. They now account for one in four people making the
dangerous journey.
Within days of the Taliban takeover people from Rahmat's village started to disappear. Their dead bodies, later appearing without any explanation.
"We had no way of knowing what really happened to them or who did it?"
In Kabul, the Taliban leadership announced a "general amnesty" for all government workers across the country and insisted they would be merciful towards those who opposed them.
However, in the last 12 months, several independent investigations by
NGOs and
media outlets have alleged to hundreds of killings and forced disappearances of former government officials and members of the security forces.
Rahmat believes the murders in his village were revenge killings, carried out by members of the Taliban against particular individuals who worked for or supported the former government.
The local Taliban denied this, saying it was individuals with links to the so-called Islamic state.
However, with Rahmat's father and two brothers, all former government workers, his family felt under threat. Fearing for his sons, Rahmat's father gave them all his blessing to all leave Afghanistan.
After months of travelling through Iran, Turkey and Serbia, Rahmat finally arrived in Calais in June. Upon which he met dozens of other Afghan men, all former government workers or security forces, and all trying to get to Britain.
Why the UK?
Standing on derelict ground, on the edge of what was known as the Calais 'Jungle,' the refugee camp which was demolished in 2016, dozens of Afghans, all young men, stand chatting whilst charging their phones.
Asked as to why they want to reach the UK, they replied: "Our cases will be heard there."
"Or at the very least", one man says, " We'll be given somewhere to shelter from the rain."
All of the men discuss the Dublin Regulation, an EU law which states an individual's asylum application should usually be processed by the first EU country they arrive in.
Many say their fingerprints were first taken in Bulgaria. But claim after being badly treated by the local border police they say they didn't want to stay. Instead they pushed on to the UK where the Dublin regulation does not apply.
The Bulgarian authorities declined to comment.
Image caption,
Serving in the army for just two and a half years, Sajid (R) says he has lost countless friends in the conflict
To cross the channel, each of them has paid several thousand dollars to a network of smugglers to get them all the way from Afghanistan to Calais, and then on to the UK.
21-year-old Sajid served in the Afghan army. He fought on the frontline against both the Taliban and the so-called Islamic State.
He now spends all his days and nights sleeping under a tree in Calais, less than 60 miles from the port of Dover.
He was on duty, guarding a mountainous region close to the Pakistani border when he heard the news that Taliban had taken the country.
"I was ready to fight on until the last bullet," he says.
But his superiors ordered him to "lay down our weapons and go home."
Fighting off the tears, he says he's lost track of the number of friends he lost in battle.
"I had to leave. The Taliban won't leave us alone. They say there is a general amnesty, but it's not true," says Sajid.
"To this day, the retribution continues. Six people disappeared from my village. Many people have been killed," he says.
Rwanda?
News of the UK's
controversial policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, an intended deterrent to those making dangerous journeys to the UK to claim asylum, has also reached the Afghan's stuck in Calais.
23-years-old Hashim worked for the Afghan intelligence services. He too says he lost colleagues within weeks of the Taliban takeover.
"Three of my colleagues went to meet in a park. The Taliban tracked them down and assassinated them on the spot," he says. "We were closer than brothers."
"Crossing the water by boat, I know there is a 99.99% chance of dying. But if I'd stayed in Afghanistan, I'd already be dead.
"The UK may send us to Rwanda, but I want a chance to put my case before them and tell them why I fled my country."
