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Column: Refugee hurricanes and climate change

This story originates from the composite voices of young Afghan men
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Wrecked boats tell the tale of the struggle of refugees to get to Greek shores. (Peter Nix photo)

By Peter Nix

Atmospheric hurricanes have devastated many lives recently, their ferocity enhanced by warm seas and moist air associated with climate change. And that same historic environmental crisis, coupled with huge social and political stresses in the Middle East and North Africa, is creating human migrations on this planet so malevolent and turbulent that they can best be described as refugee hurricanes.

This story originates from the composite voices of young Afghan men, army deserters, hurled onto the shores of Greece by such a refugee hurricane and where I met them while volunteering in refugee camps in 2016 and 2017.

This particular refugee hurricane whirls these young men back and forth between impoverished countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Iran. They take buses, ride donkeys and taxis, and work part-time to survive; routinely cheated by employers, robbed by criminals, and deported by hostile governments. Incredibly, some bear children and struggle to feed families while swirling within this social and physical tempest.

Many travel for years looking for a normal life in these countries; but are not wanted. Eventually they pay smugglers to escape by boat to Greece; but again, where they are not wanted. Near Greek refugee camps where I worked, thriving rivers are now empty gravel ditches due to climate change — and jobs also have dried up. So they smuggle themselves to Germany hoping for a job and a better life; but still, where they are not wanted.

International volunteers are disheartened by the uncaring bureaucracy of some charities and governments in the camps. A recent email from one volunteer friend reads:

“Two days ago was the first heavy rain and many trailer homes are leaking — …the responsible forgot, again, that winter is approaching and brings along cold and wetness…. What to say…. I was very frustrated.”

And unfortunately, blown into the camps with the young men are less inspiring members of Afghan’s’ tribal society. My wife confronts a group of Afghan elders, who want money for doing nothing, and who angrily disrupt the work of younger men in our carpentry shop. Exasperated by their shouting and bullying, she raises her hands up to the elder’s’ faces and tells them “either help with the work or shut up and go away”.

These unelected and unhelpful men do not understand the meaning of her blunt words, but their startled eyes certainly understand the message in her unveiled face. Confused, they depart. The presence of western women volunteers blows winds of gender equality into these camps.

Many of the young army deserters want a more positive and promising life, and so are desperate to get out of the camps. From Greece, it costs about $300 Canadian to get smuggled by truck into Italy, and about $4,000 for a fake passport and airplane ticket to Germany. To pay the smugglers, they work illegally for companies who pay little or cheat them completely. Or they steal camp equipment — anything not tied down. A refurbished warehouse in the camp has even its light fixtures ripped out and sold in Athens.

If a refugee is detected trying to board a truck or plane, they make a run for it and try again another day. No guards chase them because they are already in a kind of jail — a refugee camp. And security is lax as the Greek government is happy to donate its refugees to Germany. Even if rejected, their payment is secured. On arrival in Europe, they tell their broker to transfer payment to the smuggler. Yes, human smuggling is like any other shipping business; in this case, controlled by an international organization refugees call “the mafia”.

But even after reaching Germany, the refugee hurricane’s eye does not blink. It sees them yet again, in the form of the German immigration police. About 60,000 illegal Afghan refugees are caught each year and returned; not to Greece, but back to Afghanistan — a disastrous outcome for an army deserter.

So these men are dropped by the hurricane’s winds right back where they started; after years of hard scrabbling in unwelcoming and unstable countries, a miserable life in Greek refugee camps, and a fugitive’s life in Germany. But now, they are much worse off.

They cannot live with friends or family, as this would expose loved ones to reprisals from the Taliban, which they had fought. And they cannot get a job and live a normal life, as this will expose them to arrest by the army, which they had deserted.

So there is no refuge in their own country; instead, they are worse off than refugees in their own country. Home, but homeless.

Their government will jail them for deserting the army; the Taliban will kill them for joining the army. This refugee hurricane picked them up and destroyed them as surely as atmospheric hurricanes and climate change have destroyed lives in Texas or Puerto Rico.

If we do not stop burning fossil fuels, we will accelerate the ferocity of both refugee and atmospheric hurricanes. And we should ask ourselves, “How many desperate young Afghan men do we want on this planet?”

Peter Nix of Maple Bay is a self-described Cowichan Carbon Buster. He and Margaret Woodfall worked as volunteers in Greek refugee camps for nine months in 2016 and 2017.