At 9:30 p.m. on Friday, the former Afghan prosecutor and her son landed in Barcelona, ??coming from Pakistan, a month after the National Court ordered the Spanish ambassador in Islamabad to issue a visa to this high-risk refugee danger. Tired, after a 12-hour plane ride, the 30-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son have already set foot on the land that promises them to live without feeling the threat of deportation. “Thank you, thank you”, was the first thing he said when he met the students and their teacher who persevered for a positive resolution.
“I have never been able to have a quiet life”, expressed a few days ago when faced with the prospect of the trip, this young woman, trained in law, who accused Taliban terrorists as a prosecutor, widow of a lawyer killed in an attack. “I just need a place where I can live in peace.”
Members of the Red Cross were already waiting for him at the terminal after the application for the asylum program was activated at the same airport, whereby Spain gives him a place to reside temporarily until he is awarded a home and a contribution economic while not working.
She barely speaks English, takes off and puts on her veil, looks at everything with curious eyes. The worries are not over (that the Government will grant his request for asylum, learn the language of the host country, adapt to the everyday life of a culture different from his own, look for a job, a school… .), but in 12 hours, which separate one country from the other at the speed of an airplane, they have brought her closer to that “quiet life” she longs for. And, still with some hint of suspicion, she begins to express that she feels more secure.
For the child, everything is anticipation and excitement. He wants to see the sea up close, since, living surrounded by mountains, he has never seen it. Meet other children, learn. Above all, to get away from the atmosphere of unease that was experienced in the home where he has been hidden with other refugees for the past three years, the same flat in which his aunt, aged 21, was taken in a surprise inspection and deported to Afghanistan, stripping her of any hope of an education and a life of freedom, and throwing her into a marriage she doesn’t want. “The boy, his mother told us, is very excited,” explains Maurici Pérez, professor and director of the Pompeu Fabra Legal Clinic, determining in the legal process for this arrival to take place.
The prosecutor leaves behind 30 intense days, from when she received the call from the Spanish ambassador that occurred after the communication from the National Court, to start the procedure for her visa, until her departure from the airport from Islamabad on Friday morning. During this time, he presented himself twice at the embassy, ??the first to take his data and his fingerprints. In the second, to collect the precious visa.
The documentation was not finished. Pakistan penalizes refugees who have lived in the country illegally with a fine ranging from 500 to 800 euros. In order to embark, I needed, in addition to the visa and this exit permit, a valid passport. Fortunately, he was careful to ask for a temporary extension of his identification document in 2021, when the Afghan embassies were not yet under the control of the Taliban regime, although it had already taken power.
“He left for the last time what had been his home in recent years on Friday morning, with a lot of nerves,” says the teacher. “She was afraid that she would be stopped at the last moment, despite having everything in order: ticket, passport, visa, permit”. He was afraid of getting lost at the airport, of not knowing how to get to the plane, of seeing the artifact rise above the runway. “I had never flown before,” explains Pérez. “We explained to him that when he arrived at the terminal he had to check in, he would be assigned a seat, that he would go through the security check, that he could not bring liquids or anything sharp, only a small piece of hand luggage”. In this obstacle course, the next test was Doha (Qatar) and the change of plane.
In Barcelona, ??the teacher and some of the students were waiting for him. He already has an identification document, a metro pass, a new mobile phone. The boy happily accepted the gift of articulated dolls. According to Pérez, he looked at the crowd with his big black eyes and a wide smile. The UPF, which paid for the trip, has already organized Spanish classes so that she can relax a little and work.
After decades of conflict, millions of people have fled Afghanistan due to a conflict that has been particularly harsh on women and girls. In neighboring countries alone, around five million have registered as refugees or asylum seekers. Others, like until Friday this fiscal year, are hidden.
