Chapter 1
he Yaqhoubi family left Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, in 1979, the year the Soviet Union invaded. They thought their trip to Iran would be a short one, but it ended up being a permanent exile.
Khodadad Yaqubi, 76, an Afghan refugee from Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, shows his copy of the Quran, the only possession he brought from Afghanistan. He is a double refugee having left Afghanistan in 1982 and Iran in 2018. He now lives in Van, Turkey, with his wife and two daugthers.
ubra keeps in touch with one of her sisters who is still in Tehran.
Her sister has to deal with ever more constraining restrictions in Iran that affect where Afghans can live in the country and what kind of jobs they can take. Even simple things like enrolling in a university, or getting a phone SIM card are nearly impossible without a local interlocutor.
The Yaqhoubi family has had to adapt and move in order to keep up with changing restrictions.
Kubra’s father worked blue collar jobs in a variety of sectors in Iran, but didn’t have access to good wages and job security.
Chapter 2
Afghan Refugees standing infront of their tents in a refugee camp in out skirts of Peshawar, Pakistan.
An Afghan refugee shot this video crossing the border into Turkey.
Villages along the Iran-Turkey Border have profited from human smuggling for decades. In the border village of Sarıçimen, Nek Muhammad and his 11 year old son are being held by smugglers who are demanding more money.
Untold numbers perish in the frozen mountain maze — shot by border guards, or victims of reckless smugglers fearful of being caught as they move their human cargo.
This photo contains sensitive content which some people may find offensive or disturbing
The town of Sallidere sits near a major crossing between Turkey and Iran. Map data and animation: Google Maps
Hamdi, lower right, visits the cemetery in Van every Sunday with his children. Zehra, one of his daughters, is buried here. Zehra died at 4 in a traffic accident when the family attempted to travel illegally across Turkey for Europe.
Cemeteries across Turkey, like this one near the Iranian border, are the final resting place for many. Almost all are unidentified, marked just by the place they were found.
There are other dangers along the route as well.
Taiba, 7, Abdolhassan, 11, and Bahara, 14, from left, clean photographs of her mother Roya at their home in Turkey.
Meet the Ahmedzada Family.
To make the mountain passage from Iran into Turkey, the Ahmedzada family had to cross dangerous valleys, cliffs, and rivers.
When their mother, Roya, fell into rough waters and was swept away, the children thought she had drowned — and went on without her
Weeks later, they learned she had survived and was searching for them when she was shot and killed by Iranian border patrol guard.
Afghan Refugees standing in front of their tents in a refugee camp in out skirts of Peshawar, Pakistan. Photo: Muhammad Younus/Afghan Media Resource Center.
Chapter 3
fghanistan was a stable, independent country until the late 1970s, when it began to be influenced by the Soviet Union next-door. The war against the Soviets lasted a decade, followed by nearly another decade of civil war, and finally, invasion by a US-led coalition in 2001.
The US back the anti-communist mujahideen.
“The Soviets will help us.”
President Hafizullah Amin, minutes before he was killed by Soviet assassins.
Over the next ten years, civil war rages in the country, with Soviets backing the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan seated in Kabul, and the United States backing anti-communist mujahideen fighters. More than six million Afghans flee the fighting, mostly to neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
More than six million Afghans flee to Pakistan and Iran.
Kabul is heavily bombed, and tens of thousands killed as rival Afghan commanders vie for power.
Europe makes an agreement with Afghanistan to stop granting blanket approval for asylum to Afghans in exchange for aid money.
asylum
[a-SYE-lum]
The grant, by a State, of protection on its territory to persons from another State who are fleeing persecution or serious danger.
The number of Afghans applying for asylum in Europe jumps, from about 41,000 in 2014, to 181,000 in 2015.
The UN counts its highest toll of civil casualties from the war in Afghanistan since the US invasion. In subsequent years, the number of people are killed and injured climbs even higher.
Turkey steps up efforts to apprehend Afghans crossing its border with Iran, to prevent them from seeking asylum in Europe.
Chapter 4
This neighborhood in Istanbul called Vefa is technically in Europe, but crossing west into the European Union, where Afghans can theoretically get proper asylum, now means getting past a heavily fortified border.
Syrian and Iraqi refugees arrive from Turkey to Skala Sykamias, Lesbos island, Greece. Volunteers (life rescue team - with yellow-red clothes) from the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms help the refugees. Photo: Wikimedia Commons user Ggia.
n 2015, a massive wave of migrants — Afghans as well as Syrians — began crossing into Europe.
The response from European governments was to make it even more difficult to cross, and nearly impossible for Afghans to be granted asylum even if they reached Europe.
Meet Habib.
Habib left the Afghan national army and came to Turkey, after he and his family received threats from militants.
Listen to Habib
"The Taliban came to my home at night and took my father.The town elders had to intervene to bring him back.They did it to threaten my parents: questioning them about why I was working with the National Army.They told them, ‘if your son is with the government, then we will take you and kill you.’When that happened, I had to leave my job working for the government, because I was afraid for my life.And because I was living there I just fled to Iran.When I call home, they tell me to stay where I am, because security is not good over there, in our area.That’s why my family tells me not to go back. They say ‘stay there until we tell you otherwise. We’ll call you if the region becomes safer, but if you can’t be safe here, then stay there."
Some of the Afghans have built an informal community in the area, one where they can share essential knowledge: like how to make a living while evading the risk of deportation.
While some of them have obtained temporary protected status from the United Nations, it offers little protection. Even just being stopped on the street can lead to Turkish authorities arresting and deporting them.
Meet a group of recyclers living in Istanbul.
Chapter 5
Their freedom of movement is highly restricted, and many will spend months there, only to be deported back to Afghanistan in the end.
Up until the August 2021 capture of Kabul by the Taliban, European governments, including Germany said the country was safe enough that people can return there. More than half of Afghan asylum claims in Germany were rejected, and special flights regularly carried Afghans back to Afghanistan, often in handcuffs, and against the advice of rights groups. Simply being from Afghanistan is not enough to receive protection in Europe.
Although the Taliban takeover prompted a pause in deportations by some European governments, they are expected to begin again.
Activists have come up with creative ways to stop deporations. Stefan Theo Reichel runs an underground network of safehouses and churches that shelter Afghans who are at the risk of being deported.
A loophole in German law keeps police from arresting anyone inside a church, so many Afghans stay in rooms like this one in churches until the risk of deportation fades away.
At this state-run youth home in Munich, Germany, Ramin - who came to Afghanistan as a minor - has found a small kind of family, alongside refugees from all over the world. But he and Kai Sanwald, a social worker helping him, say Afghans like him are scared they can be deported at any moment.
Chapter 6
ohammad Radib, 81, suffers from seizures, and his wife Bibi Hanifa, 56, has Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.
They spent three years in Norway fighting for their health and to be granted asylum there. Despite laws in Norway protecting refugees like themselves who need medical care, the couple was deported to Kabul.
Naqibullah, who was deported from Germany, now finds himself alone in Kabul.
This man was deported from Norway despite being a convert to Christianity. In Kabul now he rarely goes outside, and covers his arms to hide a tattoo of a cross.
Members of Taliban forces patrol a street in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 3, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Jorge Silva
As journalists, we began covering the refugee crisis around 2015, when the movement of millions of people toward Europe caught global attention. Many who embarked on that journey were fleeing war in Syria. But there were others as well, displaced from longer-running conflicts. One crisis was not solved before another one emerged. We were particularly struck by the stories Afghans we met told us about their long journey, about how it became more difficult to move across boundaries and to settle in places like Iran, Turkey, Greece, or Germany.
We pitched stories and covered the ebb and flow of refugees and the impact of policies made in world capitals on their lives. At times borders were opened, and millions were able to walk freely in Europe. Other times we witnessed how many evaded death to cross borders and how others were forced to return to Afghanistan.
With the pullout of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan, and the emergence of other conflicts, such as in Ukraine, even less attention is paid to Afghanistan and Afghan refugees. But for millions of Afghans, the story is not over. They still have to travel long distances and navigate complicated bureaucracies to find safety. This is a living project. We plan to continue covering their stories and adding them to this website.
Journalists Ali Latifi and Sultan Faizy provided field production in Afghanistan, Selma Kara in Turkey, and Shikiba Babori in Germany.
Web design & development by Shawn Carrié and Mary Kate Skitka.
A special thanks to all the people who trusted us to tell their stories and welcomed us into their homes and their lives.
This project was supported by a Storytelling grant from the National Geographic Society.