Provided
Afghans wait before trying to cross the border into Turkey, an image taken from a video sent to the BBC by a smuggler shows.
The first time Azaan went over the wall, he broke his arm.
Braving the 20-foot drop into a wide trench below is, for many Afghans, the only way to cross into Turkey from Iran – and yet hundreds risk it every day.
“I was in a lot of pain,” the former Afghan army officer told the BBC.
“Several others had broken limbs. The smuggler left us here and told us to run towards the lights of Van city. Many of us suffered from hunger. I fainted.”
The wall – which stretches almost 300km – was built to prevent illegal crossings and is constantly monitored by Turkish border forces.
Jumping is one of the first in a series of extraordinary risks Afghan migrants take as they cross continents, countries and seas to reach the UK and other countries in Europe.
Over the past year, fleeing their country has become more perilous than ever for Afghans, as Pakistan, Iran and Turkey have stepped up their crackdown on illegal immigration from Afghanistan along their borders. and also carried out mass expulsions.
Azaan could not continue. He was in pain and had barely eaten in days. Migrants were given just a boiled egg each morning and a cup of rice in the evening by smugglers who charged them almost $4,000 (£3,150) for the journey to Europe.
“I had two friends – we promised each other not to leave each other,” he says. His friends tied scarves to him and hoisted him up the wall to take him back to Iran. Iranian police deported him to Afghanistan.
This was Azaan's second failed attempt. The first time he returned from the Afghanistan-Iran border, he took his wife and young children with him and realized they would not be able to endure the journey.
Azaan did not give up. About a year later, after his arm healed, he made a third attempt.
“I had sold my house earlier. This time I sold my wife’s jewelry,” he says.
BBC/Imogene Anderson
Azaan has attempted to leave Afghanistan three times since the Taliban took power
In exchange for this money, migrants like Azaan are promised a route to Europe, passed from one smuggler to another along the way.
Back at the wall, the smuggler placed a ladder on the Iranian side and cut the barbed wire at the top to create a path for the migrants.
“There were between 60 and 70 of us,” Azaan remembers. “We climbed to the top, then the ferryman told us to jump.”
For the law and politics graduate, who served his country and led a dignified and comfortable life until August 2021, when the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, it is a humiliating situation.
During its three years in power, the Taliban government imposed increasing and brutal restrictions on women. According to the UN, a third of the country's population does not know where their next meal will come from. And those who worked for former soldiers fear reprisals.
“The people I fought against for 20 years are now in power,” he explains. “Our lives are in danger. My daughter will no longer be able to study at 13. And I have no job. I will continue to try to leave even if it costs me my life.
“Here we die every moment. It's better to die once, for good.”
Handout
In this image taken from a video sent to the BBC by the smuggler, an electrical wire at the top of the wall is cut.
Azaan is now back in Kabul with his family. The third escape attempt ended in a beating and expulsion.
“They hit me with the butt of a gun. A boy was hit in the genitals. He was in a terrible state. An old man's leg was broken. There was a body in the trenches in Türkiye. This is what I saw. But Iran also treats us badly. I know that Afghans have also been severely beaten in Iran,” he says.
After weeks investigating migrant smuggling networks, the BBC made contact with an Afghan smuggler in Iran, in a bid to gain insight into the growing dangers Afghans face.
“The Iranian police shoot a lot on the border with Afghanistan. A friend of mine was killed recently,” the smuggler told us on the phone from Iran.
In October, Iran was accused of indiscriminately shooting at Afghans crossing into Iran's Sistan province from Pakistan's Balochistan. The UN raised concerns and called for an investigation. The BBC has seen and verified videos of the dead and injured.
Sistan-Baluchistan is one of the main routes used by Afghan migrants to enter Iran, but given the increased risks as well as mass expulsions of Afghans by Pakistan, many are now opting for other routes, especially Islam Qala, in the Afghan province of Herat.
Once in Iran, the migrants head towards Tehran before heading towards the counties of Macu or Khoy, to attempt the crossing to Turkey, passed from smuggler to smuggler.
The Afghan smuggler says he hides the migrants near the border wall, then they wait until there are fewer patrols on part of the border wall to try their luck. He carries a ladder and wire cutters to cut the barbed wire at the top of the wall and carve a path for the migrants. He says level crossings have become extremely difficult in recent months.
“Turkish police arrest between 100 and 150 migrants every night. They have no pity for them. They break their arms and legs,” he said.
The BBC has submitted these allegations to the Turkish and Iranian governments, but has not yet received a response.
We asked the smuggler how he can justify his illegal activity that endangers the lives of Afghans, while charging them thousands of dollars.
“We don’t force people to take these risks. We tell them that their success is 99% in God's hands and that they could be killed or imprisoned. I don't believe I'm guilty. What are we supposed to do when people tell us their families are hungry in Afghanistan? » said the smuggler.
Those who manage to get past Turkish security forces move from Van to the town of Kayseri, then to the shores of Izmir, Canakkale or Bodrum – the next point of peril on the migrants' route.
In Kabul, an elderly father took us to his son's grave. Javid, aged around 20, was a former soldier. Fearing for his life in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, he fled the country in an attempt to reach the United Kingdom.
In March this year, he was among 22 people killed after the dinghy they were in sank in the Aegean Sea near Canakkale, Turkey, while trying to reach Greece. His pregnant wife was also among the 46 people crammed onto the boat. They both managed to swim to shore, but he died of hypothermia.
“From Istanbul, smugglers took us to Esenyurt. From there we were herded into cars like animals. We were dropped off in a wooded area. We crossed it for four hours, then we reached the coast where we were put on the boat,” says Javid’s wife, speaking to us on the phone from Turkey where she still lives.
BBC/Imogene Anderson
Javid's father feels betrayed and abandoned by countries that fought in Afghanistan
In Kabul, Javid's father broke down inconsolably as he showed us photos of the young man with short black hair, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, posing on a park bench.
“Even now, when I remember him, the grief is such that it is only with God's blessing that I survive the torment,” he said.
He believes that foreign countries that fought in Afghanistan bear responsibility for what happens to Afghans like his son.
“We fought alongside them in the war against terrorism. If we had known that we would be betrayed and abandoned, no one would have agreed to associate with foreign forces.”
According to the UN, Afghans are among the world's largest asylum seekers and, in the UK, they are the second largest group arriving in the country on small boats, another journey fraught with pitfalls.
The UK has two resettlement programs for Afghans. One is for Afghans who have worked directly for the British Army and the British government, and under the second program – the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) – those who have assisted the UK's efforts in Afghanistan, defended the values of democracy, freedom of women and the people. at risk may be eligible for resettlement.
But after the first phase of evacuation in 2021-2022, progress has been extremely slow.
BBC/Imogene Anderson
Shahida arrived in the UK and claimed asylum
This means that women like Shahida, who worked in Afghanistan's former parliament and participated in street protests against the Taliban after they took power, have been unable to find timely legal avenues to leave the country. Shahida feared every day the threat of arrest and torture from the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
She arrived in the UK on a small boat in May this year, having started her journey out of Afghanistan more than two years ago. Today in Liverpool, she asked for asylum.
“I come from a well-known and respected family. I've never done anything illegal in my life. When the authorities apprehended us during the trip, I would look down in shame,” she says.
Shahida describes how she crossed the English Channel on a rubber dinghy, with 64 people on board. This year has been the deadliest year for migrant crossings across the Channel. More than 50 people died.
“There was water up to my waist. And because our guide lost the way, we floated for hours. I thought it was going to be the end of my life. I'm diabetic, so I had to urinate sitting there. And because I was thirsty, I had to drink the water I had urinated in. Can you imagine? In Kabul, I had everything. My whole life was taken away from me because the Taliban took over,” she says.
Back in Kabul, Azaan, the former military officer, now wishes to sell a small piece of land, his only remaining property, in order to raise money to try his luck again.
“That’s the only goal of my life now, to get to a safer place.”
All names have been changed.
Additional reporting by Imogen Anderson and Sanjay Ganguly.
