Refugees
and the refugees
By Turkan Ghafori
During the last decades, many countries have
suffered from dreadful wars that have cost many lives and displaced families. The war in Ukraine is not unique in nature; similar ones are found in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Like Ukrainians are now fleeing, many Afghans, Syrians, Libyans, and more have fled their countries to find peace and a life worth living. Most have fled to neighbouring countries, and only a small proportion of the refugees have made it to Europe. I was one of them. I was 11 years old when I arrived in Sweden with my family. I was told that this would be my new home, but it didn’t feel like home at the time. I remember how people would stare at us, and wherever we went, I could feel their stares in the back of my neck. Even though I didn’t know a word of Swedish, I felt that we were being judged. During my years as a refugee, waiting to get my permanent residency and “becoming a Swede,” I felt excluded and shamed by society. I felt as if I didn’t belong. I experienced many situations of discrimination, and one memory that still makes me sad when thinking about it is a situation my mother faced. That’s when I felt almost as if I was nothing, she was nothing, and we were nothing but a burden to this country. At that moment, I remember promising myself that no one would ever treat us the way those people did. Whenever I hear stories of racism and discrimination against refugees, I feel it. I feel their pain because I was in their shoes once. During the refugee crisis in 2015 in Europe, there was a small moment of hope when people opened their homes and showed collective
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sympathy towards people who had left everything and everyone behind for a better future as they deserve. Even though that sympathy and generosity only lasted for a short moment, it gave a glimpse of hope that people could see beyond colour. However, the empathy and positivity shifted so fast that I can barely believe that the “refugees welcome” mantra was ever uttered in the streets of Europe. “Refugees welcome” got overshadowed by western media and right-wing politicians who blamed the economic challenges of their countries and the terrorist attacks in Europe on the influx of refugees. And in a blink of an eye, the enormous support for the refugees from Syria disappeared, and Europe was “closed.” Headlines describing refugees as “a catastrophe” to Europe were furiously published. Border controls were reintroduced, and one of the worst and brutal treat-
