More than half a million Afghans have crossed into Afghanistan from Iran since 1 June. The situation at the border is alarming. Charity Luyaka, Humanitarian Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan explains the horrific situation thousands of families and children are facing right now in this blog.
Everywhere you look you see people. Massive numbers of people carrying big and small bags through desert sandstorms with temperatures hitting 42 degrees Celsius. There aren’t enough shelters, so families are just sitting in the open on top of their bags with no protection from the burning heat and dust.
There are long queues for everything – for the toilets, for the biometric screenings, for food, for every single service. It takes up to two days for all the new arrivals’ paperwork to be processed at the border due to the vast numbers of people.
If you’re wearing a jacket from an organisation like Save the Children, you’re immediately surrounded by people asking questions - where should I go? Can you help my sick child? We’ve had a lot of requests for milk for babies as their mothers are stressed and hungry and cannot breastfeed.
One lady was crying and asking for me to help her and her daughter who both have kidney problems. She didn’t have a male escort or a son or husband, so didn’t even know where to start. People don’t know what to do – they don’t know where to go. They have lost hope.
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A lot of children get separated from their families in the massive crowds every day and it can take hours for them to be reunited. Some also get separated on the journey from Iran into Afghanistan. I saw a father on his knees, sobbing with relief after finding his daughter who had been missing for hours. A girl in our childcare centre had been walking around the makeshift camps for hours trying to find her family before she came to us for help.
The children we’re supporting in our two childcare centres at the border are sad and uncertain about what is going to happen next. They’re tired, they’re missing their friends in Iran. A ten-year-old boy told me he was sad because he didn’t get time to say goodbye to his friends – he was just picked up and told to leave. Our centres are full of stories like this.
Some children are afraid because they have never been to Afghanistan, and those that have been here before say they don’t remember their relatives or have lost touch with friends. There is just too much uncertainty for thousands of children.
People have been travelling for up to 12 hours on buses to reach the Afghanistan border and arrive exhausted, dehydrated, hungry – and afraid. Many had even longer journeys after being arrested and detained before being deported from Iran, with some even handcuffed to the seats of the bus. Some have wounds or injuries that need treatment.
There are also a few confirmed cases of tuberculosis, so we’re worried about the spread of disease with so many people in one place, and thousands more arriving every day.
Since I’ve been working at the border, I’m not sleeping well. I keep thinking of the children I’ve spoken to and the things I’ve seen. I saw a young man, maybe 18 or 19, carrying his father or grandfather on his back to the washroom, either because he couldn’t walk or was too weak or hot to walk. It really does break our hearts to see so many people in need.
Information on the author
Charity Lukaya is the Humanitarian Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan. Charity is leading Save the Children’s response at the Islam Qala crossing point with Iran where more than half a million people have crossed into Afghanistan since 1 June and thousands are still crossing every day, including thousands of children. Iran announced new criteria that Afghans must meet to legally stay in the country, potentially forcing about 4 million people to leave.
Notes:
In the last two weeks (29 June – 14 July), Save the Children in Afghanistan has supported 3720 children in two childcare centres at the Islam Qala crossing point with Iran.
Save the Children’s response is being expanded to include a health and nutrition clinic and multi-purpose cash assistance at the border, child protection services at the transit centre and health services in areas that people are returning to in Herat.
Partners from the humanitarian sector and private sector together with foundations, authorities and individual philanthropists are working together to assist the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, but the needs and gaps are still huge.
