From Afghanistan to Turkey, a refugee’s extraordinary journey from an ‘ordinary war’

Farzad Shafai, an Afghan refugee, arrived in Turkey four years ago. Against all odds, he managed to make it into university. Unending bureaucracy stands between him and his future

“I started my life as a fugitive,” Shafai says. Twenty-five years ago, Shafai’s family fled Afghanistan for Iran. His mother was pregnant at the time, and Shafai was born in the first village his family reached after crossing the Iranian border.
 
The Iranian regime, however, does not provide any rights for immigrants; Afghans cannot obtain citizenship. Shafai’s mother died when he was three or four, and as an illegal immigrant he led a life of secrecy with his father and brothers for 20 years. His father worked as a gardener in a house where the family also hid. One day, Shafai relates, his father and brother went to the market while Shafai awaited their return. But they never came back.
 
After going out to search for the pair, the home-owner returned to Shafai with bad news: “They were caught and got deported,” he said. Shafai considered his future with the home-owner, who advised him on his options.
 
“How long can you live when all you do is gardening without even getting out of the house?” he asked. But returning to Afghanistan was no better option. “You can fall into the hands of Taliban there. The best choice for you is going to Europe through Turkey,” the home-owner concluded.
 
So Shafai came to Turkey with the intention of applying to a U.N. office for help. “I came to see that there was no such thing,” he says. It was 2010. From here, Shafai’s journey would grow increasingly complicated.
 
When he applied, Shafai was first sent to an...