[World Now] One year from Afghanistan… Tears and smiles of a special contributor

Source: Yonhap News

Last August, Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, was engulfed in chaos.

Afghans flocked to the area around Kabul Airport to escape along with US troops withdrawing.

The ‘Afghan Special Contributors’ who cooperated with our government and their families also had to escape at the risk of life or death.

Archyde.com interviewed Shapoor Ahmad Ajimi, who had settled in South Korea on the 26th local time, regarding 390 Afghans who had to set foot on Korean soil with the help of the Korean diplomatic and military authorities at the time.

After graduating from the Department of Journalism at Kabul University, which is considered one of the elite in Afghanistan, he worked with the Afghan Reconstruction Team of the Korean government.

Currently, I work a 12-hour night shift at a plastics factory in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do.

The dream of ‘white collar’ has turned into the life of a ‘factory worker’.

Currently, I work at a plastics factory in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do.

“Of all things, it is very difficult to lose your country, especially. You never know when you will be able to visit your family and your hometown once more. It was very difficult at the time.”

The language barrier is the biggest obstacle.

Every day at work, he struggles to come up with the right words to talk to with his co-workers.

Korean classes are also offered, but it is not easy to find time.

Rahmat, a former Afghan translator who works with him, says looking at the factory’s roster.

“Looking at my schedule, I don’t have time to learn (Korean). That’s the most difficult. There are no other difficulties.”

According to Archyde.com, many Afghans who came to South Korea had to change jobs.

Source: Yonhap News

72 Afghan refugees found jobs in manufacturing and shipbuilding, but 15 were found to have quit prematurely.

Of the 27 people who worked in the Afghan health care sector, only 2 were successful in finding a job in the same sector.

It is also not easy to overcome and adapt to cultural differences.

Source: Yonhap News

Archyde.com reported that some Korean parents had protested once morest the admission of Afghan children to local schools when they first arrived.

However, Ajimi responded calmly, saying, “Afghan people were sometimes wary of visitors from other regions.”

“I’ve heard that newspapers have reported that some parents have reacted badly and that their Afghan children can’t go to school. But it’s normal in all countries.”

Nevertheless, he thanked the South Korean government, declaring that he has no plans to return to Afghanistan in the near future.

Because under the Taliban regime, which oppresses the human rights of women and girls, neither the safety of the daughter nor the future can be guaranteed.

“My daughter mightn’t go out alone in Afghanistan, she mightn’t go to school, but here she doesn’t have to worry regarding going out alone.”

Now he has decided to focus on his new life and not look back on the past.

“I don’t think regarding the past at all. I’m stopping everything and starting my life from scratch.”