Lost Between the Lines: Afghanistan Immigrants from Tajikistan

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On the outskirts of Kabul, in Charahi Qumber lies the Kochi refugee camp. Refugees from Tajikistan are forced to live without legal status or government assistance, a scene which is repeated in refugee camps around the region. Kabul, Afghanistan. 10/02/2010.

Divided into two, in one half lives predominantly Pashto families who have fled the fighting in the south. In the other 'northern half' reside 190 families, many of whom are originally from Tajikistan, this is their story.

The 190 families share one pump that gushes out clean enough looking water, and live in tents or mud huts they have fashioned. It is not enough to keep out the Afghan winter. The young and old are especially vulnerable to hypothermia.

Some have been in Afghanistan for generations, roaming during the soviet time, or before there were clear borders and states.

Many others had lived in Iran and still have their immigrant ID’s, yet have been persecuted by random deportations, even though they lived there legally. Many still had family in Iran, permanently separated by sudden arrest and expulsion. Now, they are trapped, with no recognition by Tajikistan or Afghanistan. Separated families means wives without husbands, or the elderly without their families to support them. They struggle for enough money for food and cannot afford medical treatment. For many of the elderly, separated from their families, their paper prescriptions are the closets they ever come to treatment.

Ironically their only form of ID in Afghanistan are voters registration cards. Men of the political parties came to the camp before the elections, promising help for them immediately... nothing has come. They can vote, but receive no assistance from the government they helped achieve victory.

They do not calculate into anyone's efforts to 'secure the Afghan population', they are stuck in the spaces in-between, lost to the shadows, and forgotten.

Whilst billions of international aid pours into the country, accountability for those funds is very low.

There is a government joke in Kabul about a minister who has a mistress and that every time he wishes to 'frequent' her, it costs $100,000 (in the security, helicopter, fuel and so forth.) -Grim humour when one sees the situation of those in plight in Afghanistan.

And so they live here without help from the Afghan government, or the international community, without hope or prospects for a brighter future, and they just freeze.

On the outskirts of Kabul, in Charahi Qumber lies the Kochi refugee camp. Refugees from Tajikistan are forced to live without legal status or government assistance, a scene which is repeated in refugee camps around the region. Kabul, Afghanistan. 10/02/2010.

Divided into two, in one half lives predominantly Pashto families who have fled the fighting in the south. In the other 'northern half' reside 190 families, many of whom are originally from Tajikistan, this is their story.

The 190 families share one pump that gushes out clean enough looking water, and live in tents or mud huts they have fashioned. It is not enough to keep out the Afghan winter. The young and old are especially vulnerable to hypothermia.

Some have been in Afghanistan for generations, roaming during the soviet time, or before there were clear borders and states.

Many others had lived in Iran and still have their immigrant ID’s, yet have been persecuted by random deportations, even though they lived there legally. Many still had family in Iran, permanently separated by sudden arrest and expulsion. Now, they are trapped, with no recognition by Tajikistan or Afghanistan. Separated families means wives without husbands, or the elderly without their families to support them. They struggle for enough money for food and cannot afford medical treatment. For many of the elderly, separated from their families, their paper prescriptions are the closets they ever come to treatment.

Ironically their only form of ID in Afghanistan are voters registration cards. Men of the political parties came to the camp before the elections, promising help for them immediately... nothing has come. They can vote, but receive no assistance from the government they helped achieve victory.

They do not calculate into anyone's efforts to 'secure the Afghan population', they are stuck in the spaces in-between, lost to the shadows, and forgotten.

Whilst billions of international aid pours into the country, accountability for those funds is very low.

There is a government joke in Kabul about a minister who has a mistress and that every time he wishes to 'frequent' her, it costs $100,000 (in the security, helicopter, fuel and so forth.) -Grim humour when one sees the situation of those in plight in Afghanistan.

And so they live here without help from the Afghan government, or the international community, without hope or prospects for a brighter future, and they just freeze.

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information

On the outskirts of Kabul, in Charahi Qumber lies the Kochi refugee camp. Refugees from Tajikistan are forced to live without legal status or government assistance, a scene which is repeated in refugee camps around the region. Kabul, Afghanistan. 10/02/2010.

Divided into two, in one half lives predominantly Pashto families who have fled the fighting in the south. In the other 'northern half' reside 190 families, many of whom are originally from Tajikistan, this is their story.

The 190 families share one pump that gushes out clean enough looking water, and live in tents or mud huts they have fashioned. It is not enough to keep out the Afghan winter. The young and old are especially vulnerable to hypothermia.

Some have been in Afghanistan for generations, roaming during the soviet time, or before there were clear borders and states.

Many others had lived in Iran and still have their immigrant ID’s, yet have been persecuted by random deportations, even though they lived there legally. Many still had family in Iran, permanently separated by sudden arrest and expulsion. Now, they are trapped, with no recognition by Tajikistan or Afghanistan. Separated families means wives without husbands, or the elderly without their families to support them. They struggle for enough money for food and cannot afford medical treatment. For many of the elderly, separated from their families, their paper prescriptions are the closets they ever come to treatment.

Ironically their only form of ID in Afghanistan are voters registration cards. Men of the political parties came to the camp before the elections, promising help for them immediately... nothing has come. They can vote, but receive no assistance from the government they helped achieve victory.

They do not calculate into anyone's efforts to 'secure the Afghan population', they are stuck in the spaces in-between, lost to the shadows, and forgotten.

Whilst billions of international aid pours into the country, accountability for those funds is very low.

There is a government joke in Kabul about a minister who has a mistress and that every time he wishes to 'frequent' her, it costs $100,000 (in the security, helicopter, fuel and so forth.) -Grim humour when one sees the situation of those in plight in Afghanistan.

And so they live here without help from the Afghan government, or the international community, without hope or prospects for a brighter future, and they just freeze.

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information

This was created without any additional information