Afghans buy death threats to escape

[Supreme_Warlord]

Boom time for Afghanistan's people smugglers

For citizens going into battle against Afghanistan's officialdom, the warren-like building across the road from the headquarters of Kabul's police chief is a one-stop shop for every document they could need.

From their tiny cubbyhole offices, an army of typists can run up everything from marriage certificates to CVs and job application letters. Also available, for several hundred dollars more: Taliban death threats, the special chits also known as "night letters" that can be a passport to a new life in the west.

"We can write whatever you need; it depends," said one young clerk. "For example, we will mention you work in a government department, your job title and salary. It will say, 'If you don't leave your job by this date, we will come and kill you or put a bomb in your house'.

"Or we can say you are working with US forces," he added.

For a large number of Afghans such a purchase is just the first of many expensive outlays on the high-risk road to a new life in the west. Buyers hope the document will persuade immigration officers many thousands of miles away to give them asylum in Europe or Australia. The document is one part of a growing and lucrative business in smuggling a tide of mostly young, unaccompanied Afghan males overseas.

One people smuggler was happy to talk business after a perfunctory introduction in a car next to a police checkpoint in Kabul. He said two factors were driving a boom in his business: the rising fear among some Afghans for the future of their country and the existence of a class of well-off professionals who can afford his huge fees.

"Every day I am helping more people from all corners of Afghanistan to get out of the country," he said. "If everyone had money, then everyone would leave."

The Afghan government recently reported that around 50,000 Afghans cross illegally into Greece each year, a country which is both on the outer reaches of the Schengen zone and relatively easily reached from Turkey.

Smugglers offer different packages depending on what people can afford. By far the most expensive option, often in excess of $20,000 (£13,000), involves the elaborate forgery of European passports, or tinkering with legitimate ones, which allows his wealthiest clients to fly directly to their target country. "Eighty per cent of my customers go on a fake passport to Britain," confides a smuggler working in the eastern city of Jalalabad. "If you have money, everything is possible because we have contacts in western countries who make them for us."

A high proportion of his customers choose to fly from Islamabad and travel under fake Pakistani passports. "We have people at the airport who make sure they will get through customs," he said. "The deal we have is that once the customer is successfully on the plane, he has to pay. When they get to the UK they are on their own. We tell them to lose their documents when they arrive and go to the police at the airport."

He oversees the departure of around 15 people a month by plane. He also assists around 100 people each month who can only afford to travel by land, a figure that quadruples in the summer when the mountain paths between Iran and Turkey are less treacherous.

That was the route tried by Mohammad Nasim, a 21-year-old from a well-off family who decided to try and leave his country after his brother was killed by a bomb at the Indian embassy in Kabul.

His ultimate destination was the UK, but he only got as far as the Greek border after walking over the mountains from Iran into south-east Turkey. Around 40 other Afghans were in the group walking under cover of darkness along mountain tracks. With fake passports they then travelled by car to Istanbul, but the expensively acquired documents failed him when he tried to cross into Greece.

"I'd agreed to pay $18,000 if I got to England, but I only had to give them $5,000 in advance," said Nasim. "I was just unlucky when they checked my document on the computer."

He was deported back to Iran where he was kidnapped by a criminal gang before being allowed to return to Kabul after his family paid a ransom.

Becoming victims of such criminality and exploitation is a constant risk. The situation for marooned Afghans in Greece is so bad that the Afghan government plans to open an embassy in Athens to help deal with tens of thousands whose dreams of moving deeper into Europe have turned into a nightmare of limbo with no money or papers. Their plight is often made all the worse by smugglers who keep their passports until they are paid in full.

"It is a lot more difficult to get asylum protection in Greece so it is just a transit point," said Jean-Philippe Chauzy, a spokesman from the International Organisation of Migration. "There is a lot of resentment against migrants in Greece, especially with the economic crisis, which makes it very hard to make money and continue their journeys."

Others are robbed before they get very far at all. One man who had a decent case for asylum, having worked as a translator for Australian forces in his home province of Uruzgan, is now stuck in Quetta after paying $40,000 to smugglers, who took him to Karachi then abandoned him.

The huge fees mean that most would-be emigrants are rich by Afghan standards, many having done well in post-Taliban Afghanistan. "I have people from all corners of Afghanistan, but most of them come from Kabul because they are rich," said the Jalalabad-based smuggler.

For a passage to Australia, another popular destination, the smuggler offered an all-expenses-included trip for $11,500. Like others in his trade he recommended Australia, promising it was a soft touch on granting asylum.

"Australia gives citizenship if you have a good story," he said. "I am 100% sure that after spending six months in a [processing centre] in Australia you will get citizenship if you do not lose your temper and have warning documents from the Taliban saying you can't live in Kabul."

He also trains his clients to stick to their story: "They will know you are lying, but as long as you say the same thing whatever they ask you, you will be fine."But the route to Australia is one of the most treacherous. After flying to Malaysia legally, the migrants move across the porous border into Indonesia from where they try to sail to Australia, if they are not caught by the Indonesian authorities and put in grim detention centres where they can remain for years.

Half of the migrants in limbo in Indonesia are Afghans, the UN says, with the flow increasing in recent years. Around half of those who get caught on the way eventually opt to go home rather than endure years in an Indonesian detention centre.

If they avoid getting caught they will try to travel on small, often overloaded, boats to Christmas Island, an Australian territory just 200 miles south of Jakarta.

One Quetta-based smuggler, Abdul Khaliq Karbalay, is currently advising would-be clients to wait as the route has become unusable in the wake of the sinking of a boat full of migrants off Java's east coast in December. Around 250 people were aboard but only 47 survived. Of them, only one asked to be repatriated back to Afghanistan. "Try again in 10 days," the smuggler suggests.

For Mohammad, a 30-year-old mechanic from Parwan province, finding the cash to travel is almost impossible. But he wants to leave because he thinks he will escape poverty if only he could work in Australia.But as an ethnic Hazara he is also concerned the future my see the return of the Taliban. The movement orchestrated the slaughter of Hazara men in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998. "I only survived by hiding in a house that the Taliban thought had been searched," he said. "I believe that when the Taliban come again they will start killing Hazaras.""I am worried about the future of Afghanistan," he said, pointing off into the distance at the wall of snow-capped peaks that surround the Afghan capital. "The Taliban are behind those mountains; they can come tomorrow or the day after."

Having previously worked in a place where all the Afghans there were previously asylum seekers and are claiming full benefits and Jobseeker's Allowance (while all working the full 40 hours per week), this is what to be expected from people from there. As an immigrant to the UK myself who works and pays my full share of tax (lest I be labelled racist and holier than thou), I do not like the idea of this kind of cheating and scamming which tars genuine asylum seekers with the same level of suspicion. The UK needs to reform its human rights laws to stop this kind of widespread abuse of the system.

[Thanas]

Some people abuse the system, you draw up a stupid anecdote and then use it to tar all immigrants from Afghanistan?

Yeah, great thinking here.

Also, this:

this is what to be expected from people from there.

sounds pretty much just like the BNP textbook. So yeah, you wanna clarify that racist talk right now?

[Supreme_Warlord]

Some people abuse the system, you draw up a stupid anecdote and then use it to tar all immigrants from Afghanistan?

Yeah, great thinking here.

Perhaps my point about stopping this kind of abuse to stop genuine asylum seekers from falling under the same suspicion of lying about their claims got lost somewhere.

Also, this:

this is what to be expected from people from there.

sounds pretty much just like the BNP textbook. So yeah, you wanna clarify that racist talk right now?

How can it be racist when I am from near "there" myself? Perhaps poor choice of words on my part. If you are a foreigner and went through the immigration process in the UK (I was a student), you will know just how much lying and cheating goes on in the name of obtaining asylum and student visas. You do realise that the funding for the benefits has to come from somewhere and for those deserve and need it, they are most welcome to it. But I would rather it didn't go to someone who either has no intention to work and considers benefits to be a source of income or receives what they otherwise wouldn't if they were honest about their work.

[Thanas]

Perhaps my point about stopping this kind of abuse to stop genuine asylum seekers from falling under the same suspicion of lying about their claims got lost somewhere.

No, I read that, but it does not make much sense considering the rest of your sentence.

How can it be racist when I am from near "there" myself?

I am not racist. I have many black friends.

Right.

Perhaps poor choice of words on my part. If you are a foreigner and went through the immigration process in the UK (I was a student), you will know just how much lying and cheating goes on in the name of obtaining asylum and student visas.

Ah, so no evidence other than "you just know. Trust me."

Well, all the afghans I know are hard-working cab drivers and one archeologist, so clearly that defeats anything else.

But I would rather it didn't go to someone who either has no intention to work and considers benefits to be a source of income or receives what they otherwise wouldn't if they were honest about their work.

I hear the solution to every abuse within a system is to draw widespread suspicion and then demand the system be reformed to some nebulous goal without outlining any such method to do so.

[Julhelm]

Can't you do better than draw the racist card?

[Supreme_Warlord]

I am not racist. I have many black friends.

Is it not the case that someone of an ethnic origin should point out illegal practices of their fellow community so that it can't be dismissed as racist by others of that community?

Ah, so no evidence other than "you just know. Trust me."

I suppose the fact that said ex colleagues asked me to write letters and do coursework for them (as they certainly weren't attending any classes) doesn't count for anything or the fact that people on the bus openly discuss how to evade the system (I guess the practice is so widespread that it is assumed that everyone's at it and is not a matter to discuss quietly).

Or the fact that one of my friends who is a GP doctor laments having to write letters supporting incapacity benefit claims for patient who are perfectly healthy (and who would leave for another surgery is they didn't receive their letter).

Or the fact that his brother who is a solicitor says that even the flimsiest claims are filed and dragged through the system for years and years in the expectation that the system gets so swamped that people will be eventually be granted stay (periodic amnesties of this nature do take place despite government denials).

I hear the solution to every abuse within a system is to draw widespread suspicion and then demand the system be reformed to some nebulous goal without outlining any such method to do so.

Actually, I am outlining a method to the concerned parties as by way of having to write letters supporting these fraudelent claims/visa applications, I was able to quantify how much tax avoidance, benefit fraud and non-attendance is happening and thinking about the figures involved at a national level, then it is definitely worth for them to take a note of and trying to remedy.

[Thanas]

Is it not the case that someone of an ethnic origin should point out illegal practices of their fellow community so that it can't be dismissed as racist by others of that community?

Are you Afghan?

I suppose the fact that said ex colleagues asked me to write letters and do coursework for them (as they certainly weren't attending any classes) doesn't count for anything or the fact that people on the bus openly discuss how to evade the system (I guess the practice is so widespread that it is assumed that everyone's at it and is not a matter to discuss quietly).

Shocker. German students asked me to do similar stuff for them on University level. They even offered 20 bucks per page on essay work. Clearly that must mean that Germans are lazy and there is a huuuuuge problem there.

Or the fact that one of my friends who is a GP doctor laments having to write letters supporting incapacity benefit claims for patient who are perfectly healthy (and who would leave for another surgery is they didn't receive their letter).

Here's a fine idea - do not do it if it bothers him.

Or the fact that his brother who is a solicitor says that even the flimsiest claims are filed and dragged through the system for years and years in the expectation that the system gets so swamped that people will be eventually be granted stay (periodic amnesties of this nature do take place despite government denials).

The same thing happens with almost every kind of benefit system in place, whether be it unemployment claims, disbality claims, assitance claims etc. Ehtnicity has got nothing to do with it - in Germany both migrants and people staying here are fine with abusing the system. However, the small number of Afghan immigrants in Britain pretty much means that any abuse they cause is very insignificant when compared to the abuse and waste caused by British citizens.

Actually, I am outlining a method to the concerned parties as by way of having to write letters supporting these fraudelent claims/visa applications, I was able to quantify how much tax avoidance, benefit fraud and non-attendance is happening and thinking about the figures involved at a national level, then it is definitely worth for them to take a note of and trying to remedy.

How would you remedy it?

[Shroom Man 777]

Man, that's ingenious. I bet if we had a similar situation of being a wartorn hellhole nation, you can bet your ass we'd be doing a gimmick like this to go to greener pastures.

[NoXion]

I thought one had to be a British citizen in order to receive benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance?

[ArmorPierce]

saying "I'm from near there" is a poor defense. Many Americans live in near proximity to black people but there are still plenty of racist americans. And by near, relative to what? Look at darfur which i suspect is a lot more near than you.

[spaceviking]

Well if anything proximity of different ethnic groups breeds racism, or at least ethnic-nationalism.

[K. A. Pital]

Running out of a nation which is torn by war between the British-American coalition, drug lords and Talibs, I bet you'd do anything you could to get out of Mad Max meets Hell on Earth into the cozy First World.

Good on them for developing a way to escape.

[cosmicalstorm]

Here in Sweden this fraudulent activity is very rarely mentioned in public. If you mention something like the fact that the Iraqi embassy issued tens of thousands of fake passports to assist smugglers you run a risk of being labeled at best a Swedish Democrat or at worst nazi accusations. I don't think immigration is a huge killer issue but it's annoying that it's close to impossible to debate some aspects of it. We regularly have debates about how much money we should spend on medication for people dying in cancers and at the same time you simply do not voice any opposition to money spent of immigration related activities even though the sums are comparatively huge.