A look at a segment of migrants which the news has all but ignored – Afghani refugees. Foreign Policy reports that the first six months of 2015 brought the highest number of casualties among Afghan women and children of the last six years. Afghans are “fleeing violence, insecurity, or threats from the Taliban or government militia forces.”
“The Syrians have gone through four years of brutal war, but for the Afghans it has been nearly 40 now,” says an Afghan military officer, now a refugee. “Why are we hearing ‘Syrians only, Syrians only,’ as people board the buses here at the border, while we are kept waiting in the hot sun?”
Most of these refugees have sold all their possessions and paid smugglers $16,000 to get them out of the country. They leave with just bus fare to the Afghan-Iran border, walking most of the way to Europe with the ultimate goal of relocating to Austria or Germany.
Despite tremendous obstacles in their difficult journey, such as the recent border fence in Hungary, these courageous people are still determined to build a better life for their children. “Fences and such things will not stop us on our journey, we will make it in the end,” says Hazara, an Afghan mother who is walking through Europe with her three children.
