25/05/2012 A testimony of an Afghan man who was arrested after starting a hunger strike with 30 other persons to protest against the treatement of persons without papers in Belgium
Listen (FR) :
Ils veulent m’envoyer en Afghanistan_01
Hello,
I have been in the closed centre of Merksplas for two months and five days, but it’s been four years that I have been in Belgium. Now, the procedures are over and they are going to deport me to Afghanistan.
How can that be ? They can not deport me back there! There are too many problems in Afghanistan. In the capital Kabul there are many problems, every day bombs are exploding, people are shooting, there is the mafia, the Talibans…
They told me they would send me back there, this is not normal. My country is not like other countries, I am coming from too far away! I travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France and finally Belgium.
Overthere in Afghanistan nobody is happy, who likes to live in war every single day? People have no money, they have nothing in my country. I came here with other Afhgans, we did not want war, Talibans and fights every day.
They tell me “no matter if you want to fly back or not, you are going to fly…”
There are many problems in the capital; 100 people died and 200 got wounded in less than two months. I tell them that I want to live, and they tell me that I will leave for war, that it is not their problem, that I will go there. What do i do? Nobody is listening to me.
I was at the embassy of Aghanistan the other day, and they told me that I would not get a let pass for Afghans because there are too many problems there. They told me I would get a passport so that I may leave.
I don’t want to leave! They say there is no problem in Kabul, but what am I going to do overthere?
There are Americans, Talibans, all these soldiers, every day Talibans attack you, every day it is five or ten persons who die.
More than 200 or 300 Afghans died, Talibans want us to leave the country. Nobody is listening.
In Brussels, we were 40 people illegal like me. We went on hunger strike. The first day that the police came they released 30 people, and me and other friends we were brought to the closed centre, on May 12th. It is too hard in the closed centre.
I spent four years in Belgium, I went to school, I had no problems at all. I respect everybody, I never created any trouble. I have to walk from 5 to 10 km because I never take the bus, for fear of controls. I don’t have any money but I never stole anything from anyone, I never killed anyone, I never had any problems, why do I have to leave?
I have been here for several years. If my country was fine, if it was in peace, I would not stay here, I would be the first willing to go back.
Regulations are really strict in Merskplas. At 9 p.m we have to go to our rooms, the doors stay locked, we don’t have mobile phones, televison, we don’t have anything. A lot of people are stressed and anxious here. Thirty or fourty people went on hunger strike but it is very hard because of the regulations. Some people don’t want to eat, they would like to die, they don’t want to stay here. Others, if they find a knife, try to commit suicide. Me too, if I found something… I don’t want to live like this, but we cannot find anything, everything is locked all the time, and there are many controls. I am here without any news, but I think they are going to deport me.
Other Afghans in our group, also coming from Kabul, will have to leave. We were told that there are no problems in the capital.
That’s bad news. I have had to go regularly to hospital for the last two years and I take pills all the time. When they deport me to Afghanistan I will not find any way to get hospitalised, I won’t have anything. They say that there are plenty of things for me over there, but I know there is nothing in my country. My father died two months ago, and my brother was killed in Kabul nine or ten months ago.
You know, they only surf the internet to check and then they say there it is safe, there it is not safe, etc.
If I was given the guarantee that I could go back without risking my life, I would sign and go back! If I was given a guarantee or that a person left and lived with me for one week only I would say OK I’m staying here. But nobody is listening to us.
I have to go back and then they will think I came to make a report for the Americans and they will kill me, Talibans will not wait a single second to kill me when they see I am coming from a European country, they will only think I’ve come as a spy. Many people died that way. This is my situation, I explained it over and over again, I don’t know yet if it will change something or not.
I did not come from a country one comes from for 200 or 300 eur by plane and with a visa. No, I had to pay 12,000 euros to enter Belgium, why? because I wanted to live in peace.
It was not easy. It took me two months from Afghanistan to Belgium, by foot, by boat, with a truck, I saw many things. I nearly died. I stayed for 24 hours in a truck, there was no oxygen in there. It is not normal that I had to pay 12,000 euros, it is not normal to pay that for my life.
Thank you, have a nice evening, bye