Mutahar and Muhtasham are from Afghanistan, but now they live in a refugee camp in Athen, and I met them just before I left for Denmark. Not to stay in the camp all the time they often go with their mum and dad to a park or to the beach to play. They have stayed for three month in this camp, and they are just so fed up with the macaroni, the Greek military mostly serves for them. Their dad have used all his money on the human trafickers to get to Europe, but when he sometimes happen to get some money, he buys cans of tun to mix with the macaroni.

In Afghanistan they were not poor. Their mum and dad had a job, and they had a house and a big family.

But one night some unknown men assaulted their dad with brass knuckles, because he was an actor in a TV series about womens right. They disfigured his face and said: Next time we kill you. Their dad had to flee from Afghanistan, first to Dubai, but though he had a job there, he could not get a work permit, and he returned to Kabul and the whole family went on this dangerous journey to Europe.

They crossed deserts and they climbed mountains.

All the way his dad told Mutahar that when they came to Europe, he had to go to school. When they reached the coast of Turkey and was able to look towards Europe, Mutahar had big holes in his shoes after all the walking. But luckily his mum saw a pink shoe lying in the bush next to where they were hiding from the police. And so Mutahar came to Europe with a blue and a pink shoe on his feet.

When they came to Athen, the Europeans had closed their borders with barbed wire for people from Afghanistan, and the family was unable to go to Sweden, where an uncle lives. So that’s why they live in a refugee camp in Athen.

Mutahar and Muhtashams mum and dad misses Afghanistan so much. They miss their family and their friends and their lives in Afghanistan. Sometimes their mum cries silently, but their dad has to be brave, because he has to organize things for their new life and take care of Mutahar and Muhtashams and their brother Ali, who is disabled.

Now their dad might get a job in Athen, because he is very good in English, and they might even get a flat, and they will never ever eat macaroni again. That’s for sure. Never, ever.

 

Here is an interview with the family, where they tell their story. https://kimmie53.com/category/greece/