Central and South Asia

Afghan refugees and the election

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The election in Afghanistan is unlikely to have much effect on the nearly three million Afghans who’ve fled their country. The BBC’s Hugh Sykes visits Afghan refugees camped out in northern France for their reaction to election news.

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JEB SHARP: Nearly three million Afghans have fled the violence in their country. The BBC’s Hugh Sykes visited a refugee camp in northern France. He spoke with several Afghan refugees near the one working faucet there.

HUGH SYKES: This is woodland, east of Calais, and these woods on the outskirts of the town are home to between 400 and 600 Afghan refugees and there are almost no facilities whatsoever for a normal life for these refugees. Some of them have bee here for months. They rely on charity for food. There are not toilets and there’s one public tap. And they live in makeshift tents made of tarpaulins and branches gathered from the woods. And the weather here is frequently awful – Atlantic weather sweeping up the English Channel. Well the main reason I’ve come here is to ask them whether the elections in Afghanistan this month could make any difference so that they would feel safe to return. The answer’s been a unanimous no.

AFGHAN REFUGEE 1: Never, never, never. Never will Afghanistan make normal, peaceful life there.

SYKES: Afghanistan can never be better?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 1: Never be better, yeah. Everything is wrong.

SYKES: What’s your job? What’s your profession?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 1: My profession was I was a translator there. But I am going to have a bright future. Just I want to live there.

SYKES: And the elections won’t make any difference?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 1: No difference. The election will make more damage.

SYKES: Can you tell me why you’re here?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: Taliban killed my brother, sister, mother, and father. After that I was come here.

SYKES: And you only have one arm. What happened to your arm?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: Yes in bomb blast. It’s Taliban and bomb blast to our home and my father, mother, sister, brother killed and I lost my hand in there.

SYKES: So you’ve lost your family.

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: Yes.

SYKES: You’ve lost an arm.

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: Yes.

SYKES: And you’ve traveled…

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: Four months.

SYKES: How old are you?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: I am 16 years old.

SYKES: What should the Americans and the British do? Should they stay or should they leave Afghanistan?

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: If they leave there will be war. If they stay there there will be war.

SYKES: Thank you very much.

AFGHAN REFUGEE 2: You are welcome.

SHARP: The report from the BBC’s Hug Sykes near Calais, France.

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