Kerman – Life of Afghan Children

New life for Ismail here in Iran, totally different from what he dreamed of before.

Ismail, 15 years old, is another ordinary story of an ordinary Afghan who is desperate of better life outside their homeland, and then found that life is not always as beautiful as dreams.

The place where Ismail now work in live in southeastern Iranian city of Kerman cannot be called fancy. When others come to the Bazaar-e-Vakil for shopping or sightseeing, Ismail and his three Afghan compatriots work underground, digging holes for septic tanks of public toilets in the old bazaar area. From the dark hole, they brought out stones and sand, to be transported somewhere else. They work from 8 morning until 5 afternoon, earning about 15 dollars per day, much a better wage than the average income in Afghanistan.

These young boys came from the northern Afghan province of Takhar, tuck between Kunduz and Badakhshan, about one full day journey from Kabul. Takhar, as I visited in 2006, was a dusty province with similarly dusty provincial capital town of Taloqan, wrapped in time where turbaned men and traditionally dressed nomads from the surrounding villages and grassland fill in the weekly animal market.

Was not there hope after seven years of reconstruction in Afghanistan after the fall of Taliban?

“No,” says Ismail, “nothing changed in our village. It is true that foreigners have come with so much money to build Afghanistan, but it is really nothing of the money arrived to us.”

Working underground

Life is hard. No work available, and, to worsen the situation, everything turns to be very expensive in recent years as oil price skyrockets. This made the young boys of Takhar took a brave decision – coming to Iran. The only possible way for them is to be illegal immigrants.

It took a week for Ismail, along with thirties of other boys from Takhar, to travel by trucks to Iran border. They chose Zabul as their entry point, hidden in the corner of dry desert at southern part of Afghanistan, passing through dangerous provinces of Zabul, Kandahar, Helmand, and Nimruz.

They were so desperate that they didn’t hesitate to take the risk of being trapped in warring zones.

Another risk is the Iranian police. Getting caught by the Iranian authorities will mean to be sent back to their homeland, which then will null all the struggles they have taken so far.

“Iranian people are nice. I have never received any bad treatment from them. But the police, we have to hide from them everywhere, every time.”

It has been a month for these young Afghan boys working underground, literally. They spend their nights together with other Afghan illegal immigrants in an old factory building nearby, share their humble lunch, and build their simple dreams together.

Today, thousands kilometers away from here, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is on official visit to Paris, to appeal for more billions of dollars to be poured to Afghanistan. Seven years have passed, billions and billions of dollars have been poured, but hungry and desperate Afghan villagers from all over the country still share the similar tragic stories. Billions of dollars, God knows where it has evaporated. Another billions of dollars still to be appealed.

The illegal Afghan Hazara refugees with their obvious physical differences from the local Iranians also have to face discrimination and labeled very low social status.

Here, illegal immigrants like Ismail and his young friends, don’t really care about those billions of dollars. “It has nothing to do with us. The money is only for the rich. The poor in Afghanistan will always be poor, and there will be more and more hungry Afghans have no other choice but to leave the country, legally or illegally.”

These desperate people would no more think about their safety and life. The only important thing now is to stuff their empty stomach, even if it means to work inside dirty and stinky holes underground.