Afghan Archival Footage

Afghan Archival Footage

Afghan Archival Footage

Sabrina Lefebvre is a hairdresser who works in the world of luxury and fashion, but in her spare time she visits migrant camps in France to offer them free hair cuts. We followed her in Calais and Dunkirk, and in Paris during a fashion show.

During fashion shows and shoots for luxury magazines, she works between Paris, London, New York or Milan, styling the hair of the supermodels for well known fashion houses. Now based in London, the young woman assists the stars of her profession, like the Japanese hair stylist Akki Shirakawa. She could have been content to continue her ascent in this world of luxury, glitter and glamor.

But last October the path of this hairdresser, who is a true nomad, crossed that of the thousands of migrants who settled in make shift camps in Dunkirk and Calais, some mere miles from the village where she grew up. "I have travelled in poor regions of Brazil, and I know that in the worst circumstances, the poor strive to preserve their appearance. It is a question of dignity, it helps preserve the morale. And I decided to help them with my means."

As soon as she gets the chance, Sabrina spends a few days to settle in the camps to cut the hair of migrants. Through her work the young woman has earned an astonishing popularity within a few months: numerous people come to greet her and are and queuing in front of her makeshift barbershops along muddy roads or in tents.

Nothing discourages them, nor the icy wind, nor the mud, nor the jokes in Kurdish, Arabic or Farsi, that comment the mimicry of customers, who try to make understandable by gestures their hair cut requirements. Even more amazing, Sabrina became met with migrant colleagues; she now calls to wield the clippers or scissors at her side.

Afghan women's national cycling team.

Nearly 50,000 people have illegally entered in Greece, mostly migrants from Afghanistan and Syria. Afghans, with help from the local Afghan community, have taken shelter in an unofficial camp in the Pedion Areos park in Athens, as Greek authorities have failed to formulate a coherent policy on how to handle this massive wave of illegal immigration. Non-governmental charities and civilians try to help, providing food and clothing. In other hand, most Syrian migrants arriving in Athens spend their times in hostels until they find the way to leave. Most of them risked their lives crossing the sea from Turkey in dangerous, overcrowded boats. This is their first stop on their way to continue north through the Balkans to more affluent European countries such as Germany or Sweden.

Women spend their days taking care of their households inside Pedion Areos Park.

Afghan migrants play at night inside Pedion Areos Park after a warm day in Athens. The summer is the best season of the year to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to the Greek islands.

A Syrian migrant plays music on a computer inside Janeiro Bar. Janeiro Bar is a popular place in Omonia Square for Syrian immigrants because its owner has prepared the place with menus written in Arabic, and offers free wifi and affordable food.

A syrian migrant walks with her son in Piraeus port after their arrival by ferry from Mytilene, one of the islands where immigrants arrive after crossing by boat from Turkey.

A group of Syrian migrants waits in Piraeus metro station to go to Omonia square, a popular place for Syrians who arrive in Athens for the first time.

People hang their clothes between tents in Pedion Areos Park. Afghan migrants try to move on with daily life while waiting for the right moment to try to move to northern European countries.

Afghan children play in the Pedion Areos park, an improvised refugee camp in central Athens. Almost 60% of the population are children. Everyday approximately 100 people come and go, and around 400 people live here in 75 tents.

A Syrian child travels with a group of Syrians in the Athens metro from Piraeus port to Omonia Square, the most common place where migrants gather when they first arrive in Athens.

Janeiro Bar, located in Omonia Square in the center of Athens, provides Syrian immigrants menus written in Arabic, free wifi and affordable food.

Syrians who are already established in Athens help migrants catch the bus to Thessaloniki from Omonia Square. Thessaloniki is a city close to the Macedonian border. At that point, smugglers ask for money to guide migrants through an illegal border crossing by foot.

Syrian Children play in Omonia Square in central Athens, while their relatives prepare the bus trip to Thessaloniki.

Greek civilians and non-profit organisations provide tents to those who arrive without a place to sleep when they get into the Pedion Areos Park in Athens.

Survival guides handed out by the Greek Council of Refugees litter the ground in Pedion Areos Park.

Panagiotis Andronikidis is an Athenian who spends hours every day helping Afghans and entertaining children in Pedion Areos Park.

A women tries to cool her son who has fever inside a tent in the improvised refugee camp in Pedion Areos Park.

A young Afghan prays behind the tents in the improvised refugee camp of Pedion Areos Park.

Afghan teenagers plays with water while they wash their body and clothes in the improvised refugee camp inside Pedion Areos Park.

An 18 month-old Afghan baby sleeps on a carpet in Pedion Areos Park in Athens, Greece.

The greek government provides an identification document that allows a 30 days stay for Afghans and six months for Syrians. However, this document doesn't permit migrants to cross borders, so those people remain unrecognized.

An Afghan woman browses on the internet with her smartphone while her baby sleeps in the improvised refugee camp on Pedion Areos Park in Athens.

Members of the Afghan community in Athens leave the Pedion Areos Park after making donations to their countrymen. Many Afghans who lives in Greece help these migrants to reach more prosperous countries in the EU like Germany and France.

An Afghan family checks their bus tickets to Thessaloniki, a 7-hour trip to the city nearest the Macedonian border.

Afghan comrades says goodbye to immigrants who take the bus to Thessaloniki and the beginning of their journey to northern Europe.

Afghan security forces and emergency responders secure the area around the Afghan Parliament in Kabul where the Taliban carried out a coordinated attack.

Militants detonated a car bomb outside the gates in order to storm the compound and gain access to one of the administrative buildings beside the chamber. A fierce firefight ensued between police and Taliban fighters.

The Taliban say the planned the attack to coincide with the vote to endorse Afghanistan's new defense minister.

June 20 is World Refugee Day.

In 2014, global refugee numbers were higher than they have ever been since World War II. In 2015, the problem has only gotten worse.

There are currently over 50 million refugees in the world and more than %50 of them are children. Approximately half of the world's refugees are from just three countries: Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia.

The response to this massive international crisis has been limited, with most refugee aid programs desperately underfunded. Amnesty International has called the lack of robust international response "A Conspiracy of Neglect." With little help on the way, the future of the world's displaced remains uncertain.

Mr. Robertson, Deputy Director Asia of Human Right Watch, speak with us about first impressions of "Thailand Migration Meeting" and migration.
Bangkok, 29 May 2015

The Royal Thai Government is organizing the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean on 29 May 2015 in Bangkok. The Special Meeting is an urgent call for the region to comprehensively work together to address the unprecedented increase of irregular migration in recent times. 

The meeting will provide a forum to exchange information and views in addressing the unprecedented increase of irregular migration by sea. Senior officials responsibility for the issue from 17 countries in the region most affected by irregular migration by sea are expected to participate in the meeting, namely, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand. In addition, the United States of America and Switzerland will participate as observers. Three international organizations, namely the UNHCR, UNODC, and IOM will also join the event.

The key topics of discussion will include:
1. Finding urgent solutions for the 7,000 irregular migrants estimated to be remaining in the Indian Ocean;
2. Finding long-term solutions to the problem of irregular migration in the Indian Ocean, particularly those related to human trafficking;
3. Addressing the challenges in countries of origin. 

Key objectives of the meeting are:
1. Promote international cooperation in solving the problem, and engage key affected countries of origin, transit, and destination, considering that Thailand is a country of transit;
2. Emphasize the principle of international burden sharing;
3. Engage constructively with countries of origin and in the region.

Italian troops patrolling Moussa district near Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008. The Italian military was part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by NATO.

A woman in niqab carring a bag of oranges crosses a street lightly in the district of Sultanahmet in Istanbul next to tourist in jeans shorts and tank top, at the time people are called to pray. The canticles of the mosques strategically placed rastles a flock of doves. Probably Ka, the protagonist of “Snow” by Pamuk, have already written a poem.

There in Divan Yolu street, where for most of the trip ends today, in the 60s and 70s, the adventure of some long-haired young guys started. The beginning was Lale restaurants, that nobody knew for its name, only for their delicious pudding. So if somebody wanted to see the world should ask for the pudding shop.

 The “world” meant “beyond Europe”. In the Shah's Iran and Afghanistan of miniskirts. That country of “camel caravan”s that “was also a land of elephants” through Silk Road crossed and whose mountains sheltered bandits and smugglers,” describes Spanish writer Ana M. Briongos in her book 'A Winter in Kandahar '. Briongos, now 68, was one of those lon-haired Europeans who in the 60s and 70s visited Iran and Afghanistan. A trip from Europe to Asia, which usually was born in Turkey, passing through Iran and Afghanistan and sometimes even continued by Pakistan and India. They called it the 'Hippie train'.

From that tour the Lonely Planet guides were born. The first one (Across Asia on the Cheap) was published exactly 40 years ago (1975). We wonder how would be the “hippy trail” 40 years later and this is the result. These pictures were talking in three different trips to Istambul in Turkey (2014), Teheran and Isfahan in Iran (2014) and Kabul in Afghanistan (2012).

The Afghan prison was considered important by the Italian military authorities who have funded for purposes " humanitarian " .

The opening of the prison in Herat took place in March of 2010 . The prison facility in question is located in Herat , the second largest city in Afghanistan . The prison is divided into two : the male part is made ​​up of 3310 inmates , and female , from the same prison 160.

In the same prison funded by the Italian government - specifically in the men's section where does the alleged Taliban captured by our contingent - are made of systematic torture . A complaint has been the UN through a dossier of 2011 accompanied by evidence defined as " overwhelming ". 

Kamil Shah was held in US-run Bagram prison in Afghanistan for five years, where he was wrongly accused of belong to a terrorist group and tortured by American authorities he assumes were working for the CIA. Just seventeen at the time of his arrest in 2004, Kamil was eventually found and contacted in prison by the ICRC before being released and taken back to his family in their village in Pakistan.

"People suffer terribly when they lose contact with their loved ones and don't know where they are or whether they are safe," said Yuriy Shafarenko, a spokesperson of the ICRC in Islamabad. "Kamil Shah was one of those who we helped through the ICRC's Restoring Family Links program."

The ICRC declined to speak about the conditions Shah faced in prison or whether or not he was tortured.

However, the physical, emotional and mental trauma he suffered still plague Shah to this day. He says he is unable to concentrate and is haunted by his experiences in prison. Education seems out of reach for the young man who married in 2010 and works manual labor to make ends meet.

The recent revelations in a US senate report detailing the CIA’s torture program give little comfort to the former inmate who witnessed the worst of the program during the five years he was imprisoned. Shah says he demands justice from world authorities for the torture he faced and the long term effects it has had on him, including his inability to meaningfully undertake education. He questions how the US will compensate victims for the crime which they have had committed against them.

The interview is one of the first given by a torture victim detailing from experience how inmates like Kamil were treated. After the 5 years of jail, he says he doesn’t feel like himself. Here Kamil Shah gives an inside look into the life of a torture victim, how he struggles to live in society now, and the pain this causes families of released inmates.

group of prisoners behind a fence inside the prison of Herat .

group of inmates inside the prison of Herat

a prisoner inside his room.

Some Afghan detainees , within the male prison in Herat