“We are all sad but we are safe”: meeting with Afghan refugees in Loire-Atlantique – franceinfo

Mahnaz, 15, listens to a tune from his country on the way to the beach. After ten days of health quarantine, this is his first outing. She is part of a group of 88 Afghans refugees in Piriac-sur-Mer in Loire-Atlantique. But Mahnaz is not quite head to swim yet. “I am sad because my grandparents are still there, in Afghanistan”, she confides.

They all have this somewhat ambivalent feeling. “We are all sad because we abandon our studies, our loved ones, explains Marwa Safa, an economics student. But the most important thing is that we are now safe “, adds the young woman who already masters five languages. Ahsanullah, he sits on the rocks, and looks fondly at his 10 year old son.

“This is the first time that my son has seen the sea, and now he’s bathing! It’s really beautiful.”

Ahsanullah, Afghan refugee family man

to franceinfo

All are welcomed for at least one month in this accommodation of the Federation of Secular Works, reserved for summer camps. The neighbors are doing very well there, like Sixtine who even came to lend a hand by doing the housework and the meals. “We see that there are some who need to isolate themselves, from time to time, there are some who crack (…) Obviously, we would like to give a hug because we say to ourselves that it could comfort . But it’s not at all the codes here so we can’t, she explains. Even the kids who are too cute, we want to give them kisses but we hold back “, continues Sixtine.

They try, the time of a swim, to forget the return of the Taliban. 25-year-old Fanoos embodies everything fundamentalists hate. She plays soccer, moreover, in the national team. “Since the Taliban, everything is banned, not just football, cricket too; all sports are prohibited for women”, she says. Fanoos is not only a footballer but also a civil engineer. His first objective is to learn French as quickly as possible. But she also hopes to one day return to her country, to rebuild it: “When the Taliban regime falls, I will return, she promises herself. I want to work for the Afghans. This is important because we, the younger generation, we women, will put all our hearts into it. ”

More than 2,600 Afghans have been welcomed on French soil. Some have already found asylum in cities like Lille or Strasbourg.