Friday
Mar072008
The burden of being Afghan
Friday, March 7, 2008 at 11:39 By Mariam Mardam /
From: Prague Daily Monitor
ČTK
"I will never tell the border police I am an Afghan."
Like many a foreign national in Prague, 17-year-old Moska travelled over the winter holidays to visit family abroad – in this case, her father in the US. But Moska carried a burden not shared with her peers: an Afghan passport. When she handed it to officials at Los Angeles International Airport, she was detained for 24 hours.
"When I gave my passport to the person at the counter, he checked my passport for a long time, and I got nervous because it was my first time travelling alone," she says. "I got afraid because no one in those 24 hours informed me what was going on."
Other Afghans in Prague have similar stories to tell. With their country a source of much of the world's heroin and a reputed haven for al-Qaeda, simply being from Afghanistan can make international travel difficult.
"I travel to Germany almost every week, but I have to expect an hour delay at the border because I have an Afghan passport," says Wahid, a young Prague-based businessman, who was interviewed before the Czech Republic joined the Schengen zone. (Like other Afghans interviewed for this story, he asked that his full name not be used.)
During 30 years of constant war many Afghans have tried to escape to live in more peaceful states, some illegally, further heightening suspicions raised by the country's links to drugs and jihadism.
Afghanistan is now a leading source of opium, production of which has soared since the American invasion in 2001. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports that 75% of the world's heroin, obtained from opium poppies, comes from Afghanistan. According to Europol, 257 terrorism suspects were arrested in 2006 in EU countries.
The Czech Statistical Office lists 370 Afghans with legal permanent residence in this country. Accession to the border-free Schengen zone in December has lessened the problems they face travelling throughout much of Europe, but obstacles remain for non-Schengen travel. Salma, a Prague high school student, recently opted out of a two-week class trip to London.
"I feel very uncomfortable when I travel with my class and the whole class has to wait for me while they check my passport and luggage properly," she said. "I think our embassy is the only organisation which can do something to make travelling easier for Afghans."
But the task is difficult even for diplomats, says an official at the Afghan Embassy. "Afghanistan's status in international relations has been hurt so badly that we are not capable to help our citizens in such situations, because unfortunately there have been many cases of justly suspected people," says the diplomat, who also requested anonymity. "But it is important to keep in mind that the officers at the airport or border police are just doing their job."
For Nahid, who works in a Prague bank and is a naturalised Czech, confronting those officers means hiding her true national origin.
"I have Czech citizenship but I don’t consider myself Czech," she says. "But I will never say to the border police that I am an Afghan."
"When I gave my passport to the person at the counter, he checked my passport for a long time, and I got nervous because it was my first time travelling alone," she says. "I got afraid because no one in those 24 hours informed me what was going on."
Other Afghans in Prague have similar stories to tell. With their country a source of much of the world's heroin and a reputed haven for al-Qaeda, simply being from Afghanistan can make international travel difficult.
"I travel to Germany almost every week, but I have to expect an hour delay at the border because I have an Afghan passport," says Wahid, a young Prague-based businessman, who was interviewed before the Czech Republic joined the Schengen zone. (Like other Afghans interviewed for this story, he asked that his full name not be used.)
During 30 years of constant war many Afghans have tried to escape to live in more peaceful states, some illegally, further heightening suspicions raised by the country's links to drugs and jihadism.
Afghanistan is now a leading source of opium, production of which has soared since the American invasion in 2001. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports that 75% of the world's heroin, obtained from opium poppies, comes from Afghanistan. According to Europol, 257 terrorism suspects were arrested in 2006 in EU countries.
The Czech Statistical Office lists 370 Afghans with legal permanent residence in this country. Accession to the border-free Schengen zone in December has lessened the problems they face travelling throughout much of Europe, but obstacles remain for non-Schengen travel. Salma, a Prague high school student, recently opted out of a two-week class trip to London.
"I feel very uncomfortable when I travel with my class and the whole class has to wait for me while they check my passport and luggage properly," she said. "I think our embassy is the only organisation which can do something to make travelling easier for Afghans."
But the task is difficult even for diplomats, says an official at the Afghan Embassy. "Afghanistan's status in international relations has been hurt so badly that we are not capable to help our citizens in such situations, because unfortunately there have been many cases of justly suspected people," says the diplomat, who also requested anonymity. "But it is important to keep in mind that the officers at the airport or border police are just doing their job."
For Nahid, who works in a Prague bank and is a naturalised Czech, confronting those officers means hiding her true national origin.
"I have Czech citizenship but I don’t consider myself Czech," she says. "But I will never say to the border police that I am an Afghan."
