Refugees want to get back home

TEHERAN — Afghans want to return to their country should there be "favorable" jobs and if the ground is prepared for a decent life, Afghan refugees living in Iran say.

According to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there were about 3 million Afghans in Iran as of January. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of Afghans in other countries.

"Many have willingly returned from Iran to Afghanistan in response to the Taliban's call, but failing to find favorable jobs there, they have come back to Iran again," said Ahmad Nabil, a 29-year-old Afghan refugee who came to Iran when he was 15.

Throughout his life, Nabil has been a migrant traveling between Afghanistan and Iran to earn a living for his family.

"We were literally suffering from hunger," said Nabil, who is the breadwinner for the family.

"If there are favorable jobs in my country, I will go back there to be with my wife and children. I love Afghanistan very much," said Nabil, who is now a salesperson at a fruit store in Teheran.

Being a father of two without sufficient education, Nabil said he longed for not only better living conditions, but also opportunities for his children to receive formal education in his homeland.

If such conditions are met, he said he did not want his children to leave their homeland.

"I came to Iran during the US occupation. The US presence in Afghanistan failed to have any benefit for the people. The Americans only made life worse for us," he noted.

He expressed optimism that the Taliban would be able to improve the country's situation in the long term, saying that they have already managed to improve security by cracking down on crimes and terrorism, as well as phasing out opium poppy cultivation.

Xinhua