Pari moved her chair to the far edge of the screening center, making sure she could observe the stream of migrants as closely as possible. As the hours passed by, the heat at southern Afghanistan’s Milak border crossing with Iran climbed to 47 degrees, but she did not move from her chair. “I want to make sure that I don’t miss any returnee from Iran”, she explains firmly. “This is why I come at 8am when the returnees start pouring in, and stay all day until 6 or 7pm when the returns stop. My husband Esmat-ullah and I try to take turns, one day he comes to Milak, and the next day I come. But it is better if I come, because he is old and has heart problems andthe heat and the stress are more difficult for him to handle”, Pari says, keeping her eyes fixed on the stream of migrants throughout our conversation.
Pari and Esmatullah normally live in Kabul. They came to Zaranj, Nimroz province’s capital city located on the border with Iran, to look for their son Farid. A young man in his 20s, he embarked on a journey to Europe more than nine months ago. With one of his sisters living in Iran and another one in Austria, Farid like his siblings and so many other Afghans, wanted to seek out a better more stable future. But as European countries have increasingly scaled up their efforts to shut their borders, his journey was interrupted in Turkey. Lacking the financial means to pay a smuggler to bring him to his intended final destination in Austria, Farid decided to remain in Istanbul and find work to save money and continue his journey. However tensions in Istanbul were high, and conflict including physical violence between migrants and Turkish citizens are a regular occurrence. During one such incident, Faird sustained a deep stab wound to his abdomen. “Look, here, this is the last photo that I received from my son”, Pari said as she pulling out her mobile phone. “I was so worried about him that I told him to come home. Alone in Turkey with no-body to take care of him, I just couldn’t stand that thought.”
“Farid was reluctant at first”, recounts his father Esmatullah, “not wanting to let go of his big dream to make it to Europe. He was very depressed, becoming more and more frustrated with his situation. ‘I don’t know what to do, where should I go, I am lost father’ he said on the phone. ‘My son’, I told him, ‘please at least go back to Iran and stay with your sister and her family for a while until your health improves. You cannot make it to Europe in this weak state, please recover first’.” Farid finally agreed, and returned to Tehran to be with his sister however on his second day in country he disappeared. His sister, worried about both his mental and physical wellbeing, searched for her brother in hospitals and police stations. After days of uncertainty, she finally received an update from the Iranian police: her brother had been detained by the police and was facing deportation. “That was almost three weeks ago”, Esmatullah says quietly. “The police didn’t tell my daughter where Farid was, and when he would be returned to Afghanistan.” So Pari and Esmatullah decided to leave their home in Kabul, and wait at the border for Farid until his return. On the day of the interview, they had been waiting for more than one week.
IOM screeners equipped with a detailed description of Farid’s appearance, told the couple they would immediately notify them of his return, Pari was not convinced. “I must stay here, I will not leave until he arrives and we can return home together. If I don’t grab him myself and tell him to come home, he won’t come home. He is too upset, he will not come home for the shame of his failure.”
Fortunately, a few days after this interview, IOM Kabul received a phone call from the Milak border. Farid had crossed the border and was welcomed by his parents. IOM arranged an arrival support package and his return transportation. Farid and his much relieved parents are now safely back in Kabul after an arduous journey.