Illegal migration of Afghans and its unfortunate consequences
Afghanistan is one of those countries whose citizens resort to illegal immigration in order to live a better life away from this country and choose illegal and smuggling routes to reach their destination countries.
The increase in the migration of Afghans abroad has made the market of smugglers hotter after the rule of the Islamic Emirate. Currently, there are dozens of smugglers in Kabul and the provinces who smuggle Afghans to European Union countries, Australia, Canada and other countries of the American continent.
Many Afghans who intend to immigrate to another country think that it is too expensive or impossible to migrate through common, correct and wise methods such as asylum, educational migration, family migration and other options. For this reason, a large number of Afghan families, especially young people, try to immigrate to another country through illegal routes or ways and do not have the difficulty, costs and duration of their journey. Unaware of the fact that illegal methods such as asylum have many problems and dangers that affect the mind and body of a person.
In this article, we discuss this illegal migration of Afghans and the unfortunate consequences of illegal routes.
Factors of Afghan migration
There are many reasons for the growing illegal migration of Afghans. The existence of insecurity, violent treatment by armed groups, revenge, bad economic situation, increase in unemployment and identity crisis are said to be the most important factors that cause young people to migrate to developed countries.
Currently, more than five million Afghan immigrants live in Pakistan and Iran. As a result of the false propaganda of the smuggling gangs and their deception, these people are sent to European and American countries as illegal immigration instead of returning to the country or doing legal immigration.
Also, some illegal immigrants are people who fled their country for some reason and may be prosecuted.
Illegal immigration
The meaning of illegal immigration is that a person or a group of people enter the territory of a country without having the relevant permit and visa and violate the immigration laws of that country. For example, a person to reach the soil of Iran, Turkey, Canada, America, Greece or other European countries instead of using the usual, legal methods and obtaining a visa; to enter the territory of these countries illegally, without a visa, and smuggled through land, water and even air routes. Instead of going through the immigration process through official methods, illegal immigrants enter the destination country secretly through smugglers. Every year, many people are shot by the border guards of the countries, fall into the sea and drown in group boats, they die from hunger and the hardships of the road or the greed and interests of people involved in human trafficking.
In most cases, illegal immigration happens from countries with a dire economic and political situation to more prosperous and free countries. Mainly because of the high risks of this migration method, people usually choose the best migration destinations to reach their dream destination with this risk and difficulty. Afghans who migrated through these illegal methods are arrested in the country of destination, especially Iran and Turkey, and then deported to Afghanistan. If they are deported from European and American countries, they will definitely face problems for their next trips to that country, unless a person declares asylum upon reaching the destination, either legally or illegally. If a person has a strong reason for seeking asylum and the destination country is one of the member states of the Geneva Convention, he can go through the asylum process.
The unfortunate consequences of illegal immigration
As mentioned above, many Afghans believe that asylum is a simple and ideal state for migration, at least in a crisis situation. There are not few Afghans who apply for asylum as soon as they arrive in the destination country, unaware of the consequences of being a refugee, and involve themselves in these consequences out of ignorance. In the following, you will get to know the most important reasons that make asylum the worst immigration method:
Exorbitant financial costs
Contrary to what people think, illegal migration through asylum is not only cheap, but every year thousands of Afghans fall into the trap of fraudsters and profiteers who demand huge sums of money from them and cause significant financial losses to themselves. Companies and individuals who charge high fees from applicants with the promise of a dream life are in practice criminals who risk your life for their own personal gain. While even in significant cases, you can access legal immigration at a much lower cost than illegal means. Some of them pay significant money and expenses directly to the smugglers known in those areas through the water and land borders of the countries, to carry out the transfer to the destination for them, and in this case the expenses will be exorbitant.
Insecurity, unemployment and hope for a better future for children have forced families to take all the risks of this journey. They sell all their assets and take a gamble that they are not very optimistic about winning.
Life risks
Illegal immigration is not only financially damaging, but also dangerous for your health and life. Since asylum seekers and immigrants do not use legal means of transportation and travel illegally, they have to go through many dangers on this way. Especially, smuggling migrations to countries that require crossing two or more borders of the country increases the severity of this risk significantly. For example, for sea transportation, many people die from suffocation or drowning in cargo ships, containers, tippers, and boats. According to the statistics announced by the International Organization for Migration, more than 4,000 people die in illegal immigration every year, and many statistics and more than these numbers are certainly not available.
Also, in this way, women and children are more vulnerable in all respects, and in many cases, they are harassed, and accompanying children also face all kinds of mental and physical problems. Even some people may be caught unintentionally in the media and human trafficking networks.
Sexual harassment
The problems of travel on the one hand and the brutal and inhuman behavior of smugglers on the other hand expose immigrants, especially children, teenagers, girls and women, to exploitation, sexual harassment, and smugglers see them as villains along the way. According to reliable media reports, a number of refugee women have been sexually assaulted by smugglers to reach European countries and have been forced to sleep with the smugglers. Even the smugglers officially ask the men of the family, their girls and women for sex in exchange for reaching the destination.
In any case, some Afghans, when immigrating to European countries, willingly or willingly give in to anything, even sexual intercourse. Although there are no accurate statistics of the cases of sexual assault by traffickers on Afghan girls and women, the sightings and hearings of asylum seekers returning to the country show that sexual assault in this way is not uncommon.
“The Internet and human trafficking are linked,” the European Police, or “Europol,” said in a press release. The agency noted that many social media platforms, dating apps and online private groups are being hijacked by people involved in human trafficking for sexual exploitation, labor or mutilation. These people try to mislead the law enforcement to avoid being identified.
** The possibility of rejecting the case**
Currently, immigration by way of asylum may be the choice of many people, even people who live their lives in complete peace in their original country; That is because of the same imaginary thoughts, that is, the convenience of this method in terms of cost, duration, necessary qualifications and some other things. However, citizens are eligible for asylum, but if Afghans do not prove that they are in danger, their case will be rejected. The rejection of the case itself has a serious impact on the asylum seeker and makes him face a fateless situation and even deportation.
On the other hand, by using asylum opportunities, people deny opportunities to real people who need asylum, such as people from war-torn countries and people who are really at risk in an ideal country. Of course, fortunately, the destination countries are also fully aware of these issues and do not easily accept the asylum request, unless it is completely proven to them that the asylum seeker’s life is in danger.
Living in refugee camps
After entering a country, refugees must first be able to prove their claim of being a refugee in the destination country. This has led to the judicial process, which in many cases leads to the rejection of the asylum seeker’s request. People who manage to stay in the host country must first live in refugee camps before being allowed into society. This period starts from two to three months and may even last more than 2 years. Life in refugee camps is very hard and humiliating. It is true that in recent years, developed countries have considered many facilities for the comfort of asylum seekers and provided them with the basic facilities of life, but again, this bad part of life in the camps could not diminish.
Secret and illegal work
Asylum seekers will not be allowed to work as soon as they arrive in the destination country, and they must first be able to obtain temporary residence for that country, which is a long process. In other words, if you need to earn money during this time, you have to work secretly and illegally, which may have many negative effects for you. For example, many accept this risk and engage in menial jobs even in the same refugee camps to earn even a little income.
Impossibility of returning home
After entering the destination country, the refugees claim that they did not have the opportunity to live in their country and that they fled from difficult conditions. As a result, any way of communication with the representatives of one’s country or even attempting to return, causes the person’s status as an asylum seeker to disappear. This law is not only limited to the process of accepting the asylum case, obtaining the residence of that country, and finally obtaining the passport and citizenship of that country, and a person may be deprived of the acquired right of residence and citizenship by traveling to the country of origin, even with the citizenship of the destination country. to do
Dissatisfaction of the people of the destination country
In countries where refugees have increased, such as European countries close to war-torn countries in the Middle East, of which Germany and England are the clearest examples, citizens’ view of refugees is not good at all. Although the citizens of that country have sympathized with the asylum seekers out of conscience, but first and foremost, they see the asylum seekers as a burden on that country. In fact, the expenses of the asylum seekers will actually come from the people’s pockets and the collected taxes of that country, and this dissatisfaction of the people of the destination country is completely justified. Even Britain goes one step further and deports asylum seekers from their soil to a third country like Rwanda.
Lack of equal citizenship rights for years
Even a person whose case has been accepted, so as not to become a citizen of that country, may have minor differences in citizenship rights and rights with the main citizens of that country, and until receiving the passport of that country, this prevailing situation will be. Now consider the same situation for the refugee status and especially regarding the above mentioned cases. For example, suppose you are given a work permit, but if the employer knows that you came to this country without a work visa and as a refugee, and that you are looking for work because of the work permit, it will be difficult to hire you. It doesn’t need to be explained anymore.
Difficult paths
male, female, youth or child asylum seekers from Afghanistan or any country that wants to move; To start the journey, they have to go through difficult paths that require hours of walking, crossing mountains, seas, and rivers. It is not clear at all under what conditions the smugglers or kidnappers bring the asylum seekers to the destination country during the escape and migration process. Traveling with unsafe boats and tubes, containers under which they have to stay for hours so that the border police officers don’t see them, long night walks in the forest and side paths, require unimaginable physical strength. These are the facts that the asylum seeker must endure along the way.
Serious mental and psychological problems in the person
Due to all the cases explained in all the above information and in general, due to a world of difficulty and difficulty of the refugee path, from the way to the destination land to the moment of settling in the camp of the destination country and spending a long time in a very bad situation, problems A very serious mental and emotional impact has been created in the person and it may remain in the person’s existence and psyche for years after obtaining the citizenship of the destination.