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A REFUGEE who had to flee Afghanistan as a child more than a decade ago has recounted the harrowing experience in a special refugee edition of the Big Issue published today.
Gulwali Passarlay, now an acclaimed author living in Britain, spoke out as chaos engulfed Afghanistan.
He left the country as an 11-year-old after his father was killed by US forces and the Taliban attempted to recruit him and his brother.
Mr Passarlay explained how traffickers immediately separated him from his brother before he escaped by foot through countries including Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria and Italy.
“It seems to be terrible,” he said of the ongoing crisis. “Everything has disappeared overnight — our institutions, our faith, our establishment, our flag.
“But who knows, maybe this will be good for Afghanistan and something will come out of it.”
Big Issue editor Paul McNamee said: “The West messed up in Afghanistan. As climate change makes parts of the world uninhabitable, are we going to turn away from the needs of those people too?”