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lots of Afghan people as sleep adhere
sometime I sleep a day over there with
one blanket but you're safe you're on
this nice piece of wood yeah
now how many people from Afghanistan
were over here many many peoples under
the negative notes there were hundreds
of Afghans more Afghan people as
chemicals
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many interpreters can't wait for the
years it takes to get a visa and turn
instead to smugglers you can get them
into mainland Europe with a fake visa
but when the price is as much as twenty
thousand dollars per person the few who
managed to raise the money end up with
nothing for those who'll take any way
out they can get there are cheaper but
far more dangerous options starting in
Kabul interpreters pay smugglers to get
them into Turkey
once there they pay an additional fee
for a boat trip to Greece from Greece
they then try to sneak into Western
Europe but many never make it that far
the journey is fraught with obstacles
and interpreters along with thousands of
other refugees often get stuck along the
way broke and without official
documentation they end up living in
places like this city park in the center
of Athens it was here that I met another
ex interpreter who worked for the u.s.
military from 2004 to 2007 he didn't
want to be identified
I find this Milo as forward then tour I
want to go to Europe I said my wife is
jewellery he sold your wife's jewelry to
get the money for this medal yes yes I
told him how my do you need to arrived
in Germany this hit I needed $18,000
I'm told and sorry I can't find that
money he said how am I do you have right
now I told him just $8,000
he said that's enough
his $8,000 going to Turkey where he was
then smuggled to Greece our small
overloaded boat after three months of
living in the athens park he was told to
go to Patras where the penniless and
desperate refugees go when they have no
other chance of escape Josh where you
were sleeping
yeah on the ship on the grounds not just
only me a lot saw v Gant people asleep
it here but you're sleeping on this on
this piece of wood and inside this small
rooms yes I put a blanket on and then
plastic and then put it down with rocks
for protection from the rain how long
did you live in these boats for sleeping
many many times in this boots yeah the
big ones just across the street from the
shipyard was an abandoned Mattress
Factory where hundreds of Afghan
migrants used to live we watched our
cloths over here on sometimes ourselves
we watch it there yeah this is like your
shower what everything is there this
used to be a mattress factory there's
still people living here now yeah well
he said when he was here there were five
hundred Afghans living it affects
baggages clothes belong to us now have
damp it was the drop in the number of
refugees living here was due to a recent
government crackdown got a lots of
commandos or police attacking to magnet
Afghan people's to go back from the
Mattress Factory the refugees look for
opportunities to hide within commercial
trucks which they hope are heading into
Western Europe but you're so fond that
fact so what you try and like hide
underneath the truck yeah drive the
intially sometimes sometimes on the
wheels sounds dangerous
yeah it's dangerous too many people's
will dead and the driver doesn't know no
no no no no if they know I'm they called
police when it times the police catch me
and take me off from the tracks and they
had me okay to my house the refugees are
deported sent to prison or if they're
lucky
managed to escape Greece and get into
more welcoming countries like Sweden or
Germany
muhammad and aziz also fled to Greece
from Afghanistan but they were caught
and sent to a detention center for 18
months what was 18 months like in when
you were in prison there was a player
hey was it very bad situation and is it
a prison or is it a detention center for
illegal immigrants come it's a more but
in prison because this prison have some
possibility but they're no they don't
give you good food they say we cannot
you don't know possibility nothing
nothing
you know when they catch me I was in the
prison about 2 months my family don't
know nothing about me after 2 months I
had possibility to take my mobile to
call them and they say where are you are
you alive I said yes when they were
released they were given asylum and this
is my political asylum you know you know
paper and they released us from the
prison but now we don't know planes for
stay you don't have bread for eating we
don't have money to go somewhere we
don't have money to take good ticket for
bus and finally we find this place and
we come here they now live with three
other Afghans in a section of Athens
made up predominantly of recent
immigrants this means constant
harassment by locals the police and
members of the far-right Golden Dawn who
blame immigration for Greece's economic
woes five people sleeping here yeah I
mean this is the bathroom yes I did i
washing my body but I swore that if that
fridge so there's no milk no eggs lamb
so all the money you earn when you were
interpreters is gone
believe me it's down in zero it's making
me crazy many times within here asleep
yeah who taught was our life and how is
now and you're in this situation because
you worked with the foreign forces but
did you ask them to help you no I didn't
have time to do that because they shoot
me with the gun the attacks with the
Taliban because I recognize you the new
you're an interpreter you know because
they're warning me they give me warning
my name is M
tell me to help them you're Muslim you
are question you must help us
you must give me your car with your card
because with my car
I go to the camp of Americans with the
card and they told me we pay for your
car and for your car give us and I
understand they used bats for bad things
yeah I I said I cannot do that they said
if you don't do that you will have
problem
zzs car with his security pass could
have been used for an attack within an
American base this loyalty didn't help
him get a visa to the US but it did make
him a target for the Taliban of the tens
of thousands have worked for the u.s. in
the past decade there is no evidence
that a single one has aided the Taliban
in any so-called insider attack how do
you feel now towards America because you
you helped them when they ask for help
and now you need help and you were in my
situation what do you think yeah I would
feel betrayed
yes I think my life is finished you've
had a lot of serious hardship how do you
feel now about your decision to work
with the Americans no more no more wants
who helped Americans
promise any things with the Afghan
people their lives
I request for another Afghan people so
please don't head
Americans don't work with Americans
put together as visa packet we submit it
to the State Department and both he and
I thought it might take you know a
couple of months at the most
how long did it take to get the visa
three years this might be a stupid
question but why not just have a program
where everyone who deserves a visa gets
a visa it's a question that needs to be
asked
we're not allocating the resources
necessary to get this done in time to
save people's lives I mean you're
looking at it you know and well you mean
you you fool sure
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