Page 22 - News and Views Spring 2023

The Plight of Refugees Pat Yates 11.1.23

“We were not born Refugees. We had homes and jobs. But because of the problems in our country,
we had to leave. I am sure if you were us, you would do what we did”.

This is the voice of Mursal, 23, a refugee from Afghanistan. She is one of several people
interviewed periodically from 2018 onwards by Helen Benedict as each fled their homes only to be
trapped in brutal camps in Greece, waiting years for requisite papers to move on. Their stories are
told in "Map of Hope and Sorrow”, a collection published in 2022.

I do recommend Friends to read this book. It is eye-opening. I could write pages about the years of
endurance in dreadful conditions suffered by families like Mursal’s. Instead, I will quote from her
own essay which she gave Helen permission to include:

“If our country was at peace, we would never leave. No one wishes to live in a tent or a camp.
Everyone loves their home. Unfortunately, the Taliban came to our city and started fighting. Right
before we left our country, we waited for the new year to come, but our new year opened with war
and the sound of bombs, not with balloons. That night we had no dinner, only tears.

We come here to Europe because we hope to give our children a good life and a future. We want
to wake up to the sound of clocks, not bombs. We want to sleep without fear. We want to hear only
the sounds of our family’s laughter.

We sold our home and everything we owned. Now we do not have anything. I hope one day we
can find someone who loves and supports us, who will talk with us, not hate us.
My dream is every refugee’s dream. I want to go to university and, after that, to work in the day and
write at night. I want to become a lawyer and solve refugee problems, and a writer to share the
voice of refugees through my writing. Also, I want to establish a school for refugees, whether they
have ID cards or not. I hope to open this school soon and invite those who helped me when I was
in a bad situation to help with this too. Inshallah, everything is possible.

It is not easy to talk about what I passed through. It is not easy to remember such painful times. But
I want to tell everyone around the world : if you do not like us, it is OK. Not everyone is the same. If
you want to insult us, we will not stoop to your level. But if you help and support us, we can show
you our humanity and our character.

Refugees are not bad people. Please stop hating us. Just put yourself in our place. How would you
feel if you were insulted on the bus? Would you be patient? If you look, you will see we are like
you.”

Good News
Well, because of the success of the Peace Haven project, local people have raised enough money
to pay the rent for a year to house one Afghan family!

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