Anywhere but home: an Afghan labourer in Iran dreams of life in Sweden

Mohammad, 14, is an Afghan immigrant who recently joined the flow of refugees arriving in the holding centre for unaccompanied minors on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Leaving his parents behind in Iran, he crossed the Aegean Sea on an overcrowded rubber dinghy with 38 other passengers. Mohammad describes the nighttime crossing as the scariest moment in his life. But he would not allow himself to cry. Unlike the other children on the boat, his parents were not there to comfort him. He “needed to be brave” and “be a man,” he says. His family’s decision to send their eldest son on an uncertain journey to Europe was a difficult one – but it was the most promising option compared to returning to his homeland or staying in Iran.

Afghans account for the largest proportion of unaccompanied minors arriving in Lesvos. Over one-third of the 2,248 minors that passed through Lesvos last year hail from Afghanistan, according the Greek NGO Metadrasi.

Most Afghans fleeing war and economic strife in their homeland have spent time in Iran, which has hosted the second-largest population of Afghan refugees for over 30 years. But worsening living conditions in Iran are forcing young migrants like Mohammad to leave even their temporary homeland in search of yet another one.

An estimated 2.3-3 million Afghans now live inside Iran, of whom 800,000 are children. The first wave of Afghan refugees arrived in Iran following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent civil war. They had access to public education and opportunities to work. Some 97% of Afghans lived outside refugee camps, and were integrated into urban communities.

Since the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban, Iran began instituting increasingly restrictive laws on Afghans, including bureaucratic hurdles, limitations on movement, deportation of minors and separation of families, and reduced access to education.

Working like a man

Mohammad and his family are Hazara – a persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan. The Taliban harassed the family, while members of their community were kidnapped and massacred. Mohammad’s family fled to Iran in 2006. They were among the last wave of refugees to gain asylum status in Iran, at a time when life for Afghans there was becoming more difficult.

Mohammad’s family had proper documentation which made him eligible for education at one of Iran’s ‘special schools’ for Afghans - a privilege denied to Mohammad’s undocumented compatriots. In 2013, the annual fee for attending such schools was $40, an unrealistic cost for most Afghan families.

Instead, his parents enrolled him at one of many underground schools for Afghans, but after attending school for just two months, Mohammad dropped out to help support his financially struggling family.

He began accompanying his father to work in the fields outside the Tehran suburb of Karaj. Mohammad was small and agile, and was able to help increase his father’s productivity at work. By the age of 9, Mohammad was a regular employee.

During summers, when demand for lettuce was high, Mohammad worked 17-hour days. He describes “working like a man” but having “the body of a child” and wielding heavy machinery under oppressive heat.

Restricted movement

In 2002 Iran began declaring parts of the country off-limits to Afghans, which led to mass deportations. Thousands of Afghans suddenly found themselves residing illegally in places they had lived for decades. Afghans are currently prohibited from entering two-thirds of Iranian territory.

In 2012, Iran’s Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants’ Affairs announced that single Afghan males had to leave the country, and that any Iranians caught providing food, shelter or work to undocumented Afghans would be punished.

Although Mohammad had documentation, his family was not permitted to move beyond Karaj city limits. Police could stop him at will.

A Human Rights Watch report highlights cases of Afghan children and adults being abruptly deported from Iran for not carrying their documentation. It includes evidence of minors being subjected to forced labour and abuse in deportation centres.

In 2011, an already difficult situation deteriorated further as the United States broadened international sanctions against Iran, with devastating effects for the country’s poor. With the walls closing in, families like Mohammad’s starting setting their sights on life outside Iran.

Anywhere but home

In 2002, the international organizations and NGOs operating inside Iran shifted their focus from refugee response to voluntary repatriation, despite Afghanistan’s glaring economic and security problems.

Over the course of a decade, 5.8 million – a fifth of Afghanistan’s population – returned to their homeland. Many joined the growing ranks of the country’s internally displaced, prevented from returning to their native provinces due to escalating violence and economic strife. Today’s indicators of wellbeing in Afghanistan reflect the outlook for children in Afghanistan: one in three is malnourished, and Afghans under five have the highest rate of stunting in the world.

This past November, militants claiming loyalty to the Islamic State kidnapped and beheaded seven Hazara civilians, including women and children, in the southern Afghan province of Zabol. Returning home was not an option for Mohammad.

With the help of his father, Mohammad borrowed and saved $5,000 to pay smugglers for his passage to Europe. Along the way, he learned what to expect in Lesvos. First, he turned himself in to police officers, who registered him as an unaccompanied minor. He was then transported to the holding centre, where migrants spend an average of ten days awaiting escort to the mainland.

End of the road

Mohammad spent his days in Lesvos in a white trailer, surrounded by barbed wire and police guards. He passed the time by smoking cigarettes, drawing pictures and playing cards with the other detainees. Each day of delay heightens the fee migrants pay to traffickers, so Mohammad was eager to reach Athens, where he escaped from his assigned asylum centre to continue his journey to Sweden.

“I heard it’s a good life there,” Mohammad says when asked why he chose the Scandinavian country as his final destination. Like many unaccompanied minors, he set off for Sweden without knowing anyone there and unaware of the recent attacks against migrants in Stockholm.

Shortly after the end of his one-week journey from Greece to Sweden, which he managed without the guidance of traffickers, Mohammad says he is disappointed that local labor laws prevent him from working and sending money to his parents in Iran. He is, however, excited to start school.

When still at the detention centre in Lesvos, Mohammad spent a few hours drawing a picture of his peers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. The optimistic faces, sun and flowers he drew contrasted with the drab surroundings of the detention centre. “I have a lot of hopes and dreams,” he said. His doodling fingers were calloused from farm work, and cracked from the wintertime journey.

Michelle May is a psychologist who recently conducted a needs assessment of unaccompanied minors in Lesvos. You can follow her on Twitter @meshelmay. The Tehran Bureau is an independent media organisation, hosted by the Guardian. Contact us @tehranbureau