Afghans stuck in Bosnian camp aghast at Taliban takeover

BIHAC – Fawad Khan anxiously scrolled down the quality connected his cellphone, watching the chaos astatine Kabul airdrome arsenic thousands of his chap Afghans effort to fly the Taliban-controlled state successful the waning days of a monolithic airlift.

Khan, 23, is stuck thousands of miles from location successful a migrant campy successful Bosnia, hoping to someway scope Western Europe — and past assistance his member successful Afghanistan to articulation him.

“The concern successful Afghanistan is precise bad,” Khan said Thursday astatine the Lipa camp, adjacent Bosnia's northwestern municipality of Bihac. “So each radical privation to spell extracurricular of Afghanistan … they privation to unrecorded (a) bully aboriginal and life.”

Thousands of migrants, including galore Afghans, are stranded successful Bosnia and different Balkan countries portion trying to scope affluent European nations successful hunt of a amended future. From Bosnia, they effort to transverse neighboring Croatia's intimately guarded borderline earlier moving on.

While galore of these Afghan migrants near their homes months, oregon adjacent years ago, the Western pullout and the swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan person near them feeling adjacent much vulnerable, and acrophobic astir those they near behind.

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The Taliban person promised to reconstruct information and not question revenge connected those who opposed them, oregon rotation backmost advancement connected quality rights. But Khan is highly skeptical.

He said helium near Afghanistan 2 years agone arsenic helium couldn't find enactment and his household had nary money. Constant unit and the Taliban menace had made beingness hard adjacent then: “If you enactment with American people, determination was Taliban, (they) did not (let) america enactment with (Americans).”

Now, it is adjacent worse, helium said. With the Taliban successful power, elemental things similar going to the doc oregon to a marketplace person go harder.

“I privation to spell to Europe due to the fact that I volition assistance my member to bring him to Europe," Khan said.

It won't beryllium easy. Already, helium has tried 10 times to surreptitiously participate Croatia successful the past 4 months and was forced backmost by Croatian police, who repeatedly person faced accusations of unit against migrants, which officials person denied.

Khan said Croatian constabulary bushed him, took his shoes and pushed him into a stream and backmost to Bosnia. Authorities successful Bosnia provided him with shoes and apparel and acceptable him up astatine the structure campy Lipa wherever hundreds of different migrants already lived.

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On Thursday, dozens of migrants successful masks lined up extracurricular tents successful the campy wherever aesculapian workers checked their temperatures and vaccinated them against the caller coronavirus.

Khan was blessed to beryllium inoculated amid a surge successful COVID-19 infections successful the Balkans. But his existent interest was elsewhere: While helium utilized to speech to his member regularly connected the encrypted messaging work WhatsApp, helium hasn't heard from him for 2 weeks.

And, Khan said, with instrumentality to Afghanistan impossible, closed borders are blocking his ain hopes of moving on, and yet helping his brother.

“Croatia constabulary (is) large occupation we have,” helium said, “We privation to spell rapidly due to the fact that concern is not bully successful Afghanistan, we privation to spell quickly, we (want to) assistance our families. It is truly pugnacious for us."

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