The photos on Instagram show four relaxed young people, strolling in Copacabana or in front of Maracanã. The lives of Omar, 24, Akbar, 23, Shadaab, 20, and Shahzad, 18, have completely changed in the last week.
Until they reached Rio, the four young Afghans faced a grueling five-month journey that included traveling more than 4,000 kilometers from Kabul to Turkey, passing through Iran, escaping gunfire by Turkish border police and sleeping on the streets in Ankara while waiting for the Brazilian visa.
They are cousins —Omar and Akbar are brothers, as are Shadaab and Shahzad— and they came to meet an uncle who lives in Brazil. Ahmad Amiri arrived in the country as a refugee seven years ago and has been married for four years to a Brazilian, chemical engineer Magda Martins, 46.
The boys left home in May this year, three months before the Taliban regained power, when they realized the extremist group was gaining ground. They didn’t tell anyone: family members only found out when they were already on the road.
They spent days walking until they reached Turkey. They crossed the border irregularly, were discovered by the police, but managed to escape shooting and arrest. They got a job and a place to rent, with the plan to settle down and take their family there in the future.
But in August, as the political crisis in Afghanistan worsened, the Turkish government tightened its grip on immigrants of that nationality, and the local population feared reprisals. Omar, Akbar, Shadaab and Shahzad were fired and evicted from their apartment.
“It all went wrong,” says the aunt, Magda. “They had very difficult days. They slept in an open-air park, went to the mosque to pray and did their hygiene there, but they didn’t let them stay, they had to go back to the park. In the end, they were getting cold.”
Meanwhile, Magda and Ahmad were trying to find a way to help. In mid-August, the Brazilian government announced that it was studying the granting of a humanitarian visa for Afghans, but regulation of the document only came out in early September. “We were following them from afar, waiting for the visa ordinance to be published. When it came out, we thought that their bad situation would end quickly, but the visa only came out last week”, says Magda. “The embassy began to pose difficulties, asking for a series of requirements that were not in the ordinance, which made the visa practically unfeasible.”
At the end of September, embassies authorized to issue humanitarian visas to Afghans began to require applicants that some company or organization commit to providing them with a long list of requirements, including health and dental insurance, monthly income, accommodation, food, transportation, Covid-19 test and costs for revalidating diplomas.
Asked by sheet At the time, Itamaraty said that the guidelines are not mandatory and are only valid for cases in which the visa application is made through private institutions or NGOs and involves large groups of people to be welcomed.
On the 13th, the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) sent a request for explanations to Itamaraty about the visa status of Magda’s nephews, noting that they were homeless and fearful of being detained due to their irregular migratory status. The following week, the visa came out.
The Brazilian claims that this was the nephews’ first plane trip. The arrival took place last Monday (25), and the emotional reunion was recorded in photos and videos.
Magda says that after the documentation is resolved, they will look for a job and learn Portuguese. “I’m worried because new challenges will come. Living in Brazil is not easy. But the feeling I get is that they are amazed, with a new life expectancy. With that feeling of ‘we’ll be happy’.”
The family is also concerned about the relatives who remain in Afghanistan. Two of them have already been kidnapped by the Taliban and have never appeared again. But the reunion with the nephews renewed Ahmad’s strength, says Magda. “A lot of people helped us, people are sending donations, as they only arrived with the clothes on their backs. The arrival of these boys was a bath of hope for us.”
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