Khodabakhsh Amini and Anjila Hamidi, together with their children, on Tuesday in Los Alcázares (Murcia). Alfonso Durán
Anjila Hamidi fled Afghanistan at the age of 33 and six months pregnant.
It was April 2022, eight months had passed since the Taliban had seized power and forced tens of thousands of people to flee, especially women and collaborators from foreign countries.
She and her husband, the two prosecutors, were included in the new regime's blacklist.
To flee, they sold everything of value and crossed the Iranian border in their car.
She was no longer going back.
On June 20, the couple and their two children, ages two and seven, landed in Barajas thanks to a safe-conduct issued by the Spanish embassy.
Anjila knew that what she had ahead of her was not going to be easy, but she never imagined that the conditions of her reception in Spain were going to push her, eight months later,
During this time in Spain little Kasra was born, but the family is a long way from celebrating his new life.
The five of them live in precarious conditions, without speaking Spanish, without a euro in their pocket, without a school for the children... They spent the first four months in a hostel on the outskirts of Madrid that had been converted into an emergency reception center and when, finally, the They moved from there in November, it was to end up in another room without a bathroom in a hostel in Los Alcázares (Murcia).
Contrary to what is established by the regulations of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, Anjila and her family have spent, between one shelter and another, more than half a year in an emergency reception phase, when this stage should not exceed one month.
His story does not reflect the reality of the entire refugee reception system, but it does uncover flaws,
More information
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Anijla's family is trapped with no justification, stuck in the so-called phase zero, a stage designed exclusively for NGOs and the ministry to manage the transfer of asylum seekers and refugees to the most appropriate spaces according to their cases.
The centers for this phase have the basics and are designed to spend as little time as possible.
But there are hundreds of cases of Afghans and refugees of other nationalities who have extended their stay in these places for months, according to NGO sources.
When someone is in phase zero they are not even considered to be in the system.
Anjila's case is particularly vulnerable, as she is in charge of three minors, including a newborn and a child with autism, still undiagnosed and untreated in Spain.
“We have complained so many times, but no one listens to us,” she explains.
Reporting her situation to EL PAÍS has been her last resort.
In his room in Los Alcázares there is exactly one bookcase, one chair, three bunk beds and a narrow corridor between them.
The space does not allow them to lead a normal life, to have a minimum of comfort.
Anjila breastfeeds the baby lying on a rug on the floor because if she does it sitting on her bed, she will hit her head on the upper bunk.
In the bathroom, shared with other refugees, it is too cold and there is no space adapted to bathe the newborn.
“We were in a somewhat better room, with more space to move around, but they took us out because it was for six people and there were five of us.
Now a Ukrainian family of three sleeps there, ”explains her husband, Khodabakhsh Amini, 33, a former collaborator of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
"It's not that we had very high expectations,
In August 2021, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the Government of Pedro Sánchez encouraged Spain to lead the evacuation and reception of hundreds of Afghans.
King Felipe VI himself, together with several ministers, went to receive dozens of refugees at the Torrejón aerodrome, illuminated by the flashes of photographers.
Since then, some 3,900 Afghans whose lives were at risk have obtained assistance from the Spanish Government and almost 2,200 entered the state reception network.
But more than a year and a half later, with the lights off and excluded from the headlines, almost a third have given up their job to live more independently or emigrate to third countries where they have family networks and more facilities.
The reception system has two phases that begin once the evaluation and referral period is over, which in theory lasts a maximum of one month.
Then, the asylum seekers go on to a first stage of reception in centers, which lasts six months and includes more activities, training and guidance for employment, and pocket money.
Once this time has passed, the itinerary marks the move to the autonomy phase, the last, in which, with rental aid, refugees are promoted to live in their own homes and independently.
The Spanish model is different from that of other countries, such as France, where applicants receive an allowance from the beginning so that they can rebuild their lives freely while their application is being studied.
Currently, Anjila, her husband and their children are the only Afghans who are still in phase zero, according to Migration data, but there are hundreds of compatriots stuck in the next reception phase.
Of the 1,150 Afghans who have entered the system since August 2021, there are still, almost a year and a half later, 451 in that first stage.
Of the 256 Afghans who arrived in 2022, for example, none have yet been able to progress to the last stage in which they choose to live in a house and organize their lives more independently.
Deadlines are repeatedly missed and hinder the entire process, according to three managers from different NGOs consulted.
These sources, familiar with the direct management of reception, point out that there are not enough places in the network (the arrival of Ukrainian refugees has further saturated the system) and that it is increasingly difficult to rent houses for refugees because the prices are through the roof, the owners refuse to make contracts to foreigners or because the conditions are too demanding.
If there are no homes they can move to, the refugees have to stay in reception centers, thus delaying the departure of those who aspire to live on their own or to move beyond the phase, like Anjila and her family.
There is another important factor that distorts everything.
Just a year ago, the Ministry of Migrations decreed that it would not facilitate the passage to the second phase, in which aid is offered to rent apartments, until asylum seekers are recognized as refugees, a rule that does not apply to Ukrainians. .
The problem is that although the legal term to resolve these files is six months, the Ministry of the Interior systematically fails to comply with it.
The system, as the Ombudsman has stated, fails.
In a November resolution, the institution conveys its concern about the shortcomings of the system, especially for children and the most vulnerable people.
It also asks for information on the supervision that the Ministry of the reception of NGOs does.
Rabia Sadat, her husband Qasem Ghafoori, their young son and her 13-year-old sister. SANTI BURGOS
In the mountains of Madrid, another family of Afghans asks for help.
Rabia Sadat, 25, and Qasem Ghafoori, 28, both journalists, were on the list of people Spain wanted to evacuate.
But, due to the enormous chaos that took place in August 2021 at the Kabul airport, neither of them managed to connect with the Spanish military.
Finally, in March 2022, they arrived in Madrid, with their two-year-old son, and Radia's sister, 13. The four of them stayed in phase zero shelters for more than seven months until they were transferred in October to a reception center, without Wi-Fi and where they reheat food that arrives in trays because they don't have a kitchen.
“We expected that after so many months of horrible waiting they would transfer us to an apartment to start a normal life, but unfortunately they sent us for the third time to another center [...] where we only have a very small room for four people.
We are mentally and physically ill, in shock and depressed,” Radia wrote to the entity that hosts her in December.
The journalist also raised her complaints with the ministry in October.
The situation is more serious since the 13-year-old girl tried to commit suicide with a massive intake of paracetamol.
The girl tells that she is depressed, that she cannot live knowing that her father, a soldier who collaborated with the United States, could be captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
She claims that, after at least 10 months, she be allowed to stop sleeping with her sister, her husband and her child in a shared bunk.
“My father is in danger, I'm depressed, I'm always crying, I don't want to go to school, I'm tired of going on with this life”, she whispers through tears.
“I have many wishes, I would like to be relaxed, go to school, be an airplane pilot… But for 10 months I have been sitting in a prison, in a room with a married couple.
It is very difficult for me, ”she adds.
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