Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: migration

migration

Keep on Moving on the Balkan Route: No quarter for Afghan asylum seekers in Croatia and Serbia

Fabrizio Foschini •

The number of Afghan refugees moving along the Balkan Route has remained very high this summer. A large proportion of those taking the long trip to central, western and northern Europe are in their early twenties and many are under-age. From Turkey, they usually cross Greece and Bulgaria in order to reach Serbia. Once there, […]

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Afghan Exodus: Migrants in Turkey left to fend for themselves

Christine Roehrs • Khadija Hossaini •

For Afghans seeking refuge or a new life in Europe, Turkey used to be a major migration transit hub. With routes through Turkey largely shut down after a refugee pact with the European Union in 2016, the country is now permanently hosting millions of refugees and migrants – among them possibly hundreds of thousands of […]

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Afghan migrants, including minors, living in inhumane conditions in a Belgrade, Serbia squat. Photo: Martine van Bijlert, April 2017.

Thematic Dossier XXII: Afghan migration to Europe and beyond (2)

AAN Team •

The subject of Afghans trying to migrate to Europe and beyond may have dropped out of the headlines in the last couple of years, but AAN has continued to follow their stories. Getting into Europe and then getting across eastern Europe into the west has become much more difficult since we published our first thematic […]

Dossiers Read more

AAN’s most-read dispatches in 2018: So much war… and a little peace and justice

Kate Clark •

Here at AAN, we have been looking back at what we published in 2018, in English and Dari and Pashto. We have also been considering what you, dear readers, have been most interested in. Compiling the list of our most-read dispatches in 2018 was a sobering task, says AAN Co-Director, Kate Clark (with data from […]

Context and Culture Read more
Main informal camp after the storm on 17 July 2018 in Velika Kladusa, a town in northwest Bosnia. Photo: Elizabeth Wait, 2018.

Killing Time in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Afghan migrants try a new route into the EU

Elizabeth Wait •

Since January, around 800 Afghans have arrived in the non-EU country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an attempt to find a new route into the European Union. They are mainly camping out in dilapidated buildings and makeshift structures in the towns of Bihać and Velika Kladuša, both near to the north-western border with EU member […]

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Pressure and Peril: Afghan refugees and Europe in 2017

Thomas Ruttig •

The number of Afghan refugees arriving on Europe’s shores this year was significantly lower than in 2015 and 2016, but the arrivals have not stopped. In 2017, there were still a few thousand Afghans making the hazardous trip across the Mediterranean to the continent, and tens of thousands more continued to be on the move inside […]

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Kuja Meri? Joel van Houdt’s street photo exhibition on Afghan migration

Jelena Bjelica •

Joel van Houdt, an independent Dutch photojournalist, who lived in Afghanistan for several years, has recently returned to Kabul to exhibit his photography on Afghan migration. The exhibition, entitled “Kuja meri? – Where are you going?”, comprises a series of about 50 photos that focus entirely on Afghanistan’s refugees and is displayed on the outer […]

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A still image from video posted online by the Organisation for the Protection of Bulgarian Citizens (OPBC), which shows three Afghan migrants captured by the group near the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Photo: Open source.

Far Beneath the European Average: The treatment of Afghan migrants in Bulgaria

Jelena Bjelica •

Many Afghan migrants have been opting to travel through Bulgaria, a country bordering Turkey, on their journey to western and northern Europe. This route, while safer than a sea crossing, comes with its own terrifying experiences, as first-hand testimonies of migrants collected by different human rights organisations have shown. In Bulgaria, Afghan migrants are not […]

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Afghan Asylum Seekers in Italy: A place of temporary respite

Fabrizio Foschini • Jelena Bjelica •

The number of Afghan asylum seekers in Italy has been steadily rising over the last decade. Numbers grew particularly rapidly between 2013 and 2015 and only in recent months have they slowed down. Throughout the last ten years, not only has Italy become a fixture in the mental map of Afghan migrants, but it has […]

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Afghan migrants, including minors, living in inhumane conditions in a Belgrade, Serbia squat. Photo: Martine van Bijlert (Nov 2016)

AAN’s Martine van Bijlert and Jelena Bjelica discuss their research work on migration. Episode: 3 – June, 2017

Jelena Bjelica •

AAN’s Martine van Bijlert and Jelena Bjelica in conversation with Roxanna Shapour on their research on Afghan migrants.

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The outer walls of the barracks in Belgrade were covered in colourful graffiti, giving the place a surreal feel. The squat, which is now being demolished, housed around a thousand migrants – mainly Afghans and Pakistanis, all men. Belgrade, April 2017. Photo: Martine van Bijlert

The Aftermath of an Exodus: Afghans stuck in Serbia still trying to ‘hit the game’

Martine van Bijlert • Jelena Bjelica •

For more than six months, the dilapidated barracks behind Belgrade’s main bus station housed over a thousand men and boys – most of them Afghans. Conditions, despite better weather and increased assistance, remained dire and the migrants continued to live under the looming threat of eviction. In May 2017, the authorities finally moved in, vacated […]

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The Aftermath of an Exodus: The Balkans’ old smuggling routes and Europe’s closed borders

Martine van Bijlert • Jelena Bjelica •

With some borders shared with EU countries that are trying to keep migrants and asylum seekers out, Serbia finds itself increasingly home to people who want to travel onwards but are unable to do so. An estimated eight to ten thousand migrants – most of them Afghans – who intended to travel on to Western […]

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