Afghan Warrior

Almost three decades of war since the first Soviet invasion in 1979, foreign enemies and warlords forced Afghans to leave their country. A majority of Afghan refugees emigrated to Pakistan and Iran. Several others made their way to other destinations in the world, but Iran and Pakistan are home of millions of Afghan refugees. There are nearly two million Afghan refugees in
Pakistan and more than one million in Iran. Afghan refugees faced many problems during their emigration. In some countries, especially in Pakistan and Iran, several were jailed for just being refugees and police were beating and fining them with out any logical reasons. Since 2002 more than three million Afghan refugees have been repatriated.

Due to last year's cold winter, repatriation of refugees stopped, but in the current year thousands of refugees will return from Pakistan and Iran. A majority of refugees are homeless and living in tents. During the civil war and Taliban regime, most people were compelled to sell their houses and property for a very cheap price and spend the money to emigrate to other countries. Lack of shelter, unemployment and absolute poverty is a major problem to most returnees. I have been in some refugee camps in Kabul city and people complain about their living conditions. They say that they spent years in exile and with the establishment of the new Afghan government they thought it was time to return home and resume a respectable life, but now they think that returning was a big mistake.

Hundreds of children died due to cold weather inside their tents in different camps. There is a camp beside the ANA central corps with more than 60 tents. Before the onset of winter, the US Army issued blankets and food for all refugees in this camp, which was a great help. And they were safer than any other camp in Kabul. During the winter they appreciated the US Army's help, but there are some other refugee camps that still need food, clothing and medicine and need serious attention. However the government promised many times to issue land for these homeless people, but they never fulfilled their promises. Every day hundreds of refugees return home from Iran and Pakistan. I hope the Afghan government and NGOs help these refugees and that the government issues land to these homeless people and provides education for the kids inside these camps.