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Text and Photography by Kloie Picot
Disabled refugees and internally displaced Afghans are truly forgotten individuals. The conflicts between the Soviet-backed Afghan government of M. Najibullah, the United States and Pakistan-supported mujahadeen, and later the Taliban Regime, coupled with the comparatively recent deployment of Allied forces in Afghanistan have resulted in hundreds of thousands of disabled Afghans. These brutal military campaigns have facilitated one of the biggest humanitarian crises of modern history, with over five million Afghan refugees fleeing to Pakistan and Iran and another two million displaced internally.
Former bitter foes, the various mujahadeen factions and the soldiers of the old Soviet supported Republic of Afghanistan now live side by side in displacement camps. “Its not important anymore which side you were on. We are all Afghanis,” says Abdul Moqeem, a former mujahadeen and landmine victim currently living in Department 5 displacement camp (a bombed-out building in the former Soviet Embassy compound in Kabul). “It’s how to earn a living when you are disabled. No one will employ me and I receive 300 afghani (US$6.00) a month from the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled (MOMD). How am I supposed to feed my family, put my children in school on 300 afghanis a month? There’s no public transport near this camp and I can’t afford to take a taxi, and I live in Kabul…Sometimes when I do make it there, they say come back later. It’s not worth the trip.”
Abdul is one of thousands of disabled war vets without arms, legs, or both, reduced to either living on handouts or begging on the war-ravaged streets. “I used to have a small vegetable shop in Iran. Then some government officials came and told us that it’s safe to come back to Afghanistan. They told us they would give us land and jobs. So we came back, and now we’re worse off than in Iran. Now they came and told us they have land for us and we have to leave this displacement camp because they are rebuilding it for government offices. Some of us left and saw the land is very wet and they have to live in tents. Winter is coming, how are we supposed to survive the cold in tents in winter?”
Although no formal studies have been conducted, local surveys estimate that some 4 per cent of the Afghan population is disabled from ballistic or landmine injuries. In a population of 20 million this means about 700,000 men, women and children are disabled. Afghanistan has the highest civilian rate of landmine injury and mortality in the world. The MOMD estimates that 100 Afghans are killed or injured every month by these devices.
The disabled and displaced face the challenge of finding safety, completing daily activities, and overcoming discrimination on several fronts, including education, access to services and rehabilitation. They’re often the last in displacement camps to receive food, water and medical care, and many locals view them as a burden. Displaced people were given one year of free healthcare by the Afghan government, but for many people that year has expired.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is one of the only institutions that employs and helps disabled Afghans. Since 1988 the ICRC has provided orthopedic and rehabilitation services to disabled Afghans, many of whom are also displaced. Patients are offered micro-credit loans and job training to help improve their positions. Through sheer determination and creativity disabled refugees survive. Whether by begging or with a loan, their will to survive remains.
Abdul’s wife was fortunate enough to find a job in a clinic. Her salary of 6,000 afghanis (US$200) per month is more than most people in the displacement camp dream of. When asked about the future Abdul replied, “How can I think about the future when tomorrow the government might come and move us to some tent on a wet piece of land?”
Kloie Picot is a photojournalist and videographer specializing in international news events, and documentary projects in S.E Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. A trailer for her newest documentary, and other work, can be seen on her website, www.kloie.com.
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