Imran was born in Herat and grew up with his parents and younger brother. His father was an officer in the Afghan army. Imran's journey to school was dangerous, as schools were often attacked: explosives, gunshots, tear gas, poisoned food. Once, when Imran was eleven, he witnessed a suicide attack outside a mosque after school: "There were body parts everywhere. A man and his child burned to death in their car—I heard them screaming."
His father also became a target of the Taliban. During one mission, the military convoy was attacked: "Some of his colleagues were killed. My father was hit in the leg. Since then, he hasn't been able to walk properly."
Imran's father faced increasing pressure in the neighborhood: Some neighbors demanded weapons—his father knew they sympathized with the Taliban. When he refused, they threatened to hand him over to the Taliban. The more territory the Taliban conquered, the greater the fear of retaliation grew—many of the neighbors joined the Taliban themselves.
With the fall of the government in August 2021, the situation worsened dramatically. When the Taliban invaded Herat, his father wanted to fight, but his mother held him back. "We were panicked. We didn't know what was happening. We were afraid of dying." His father burned his documents. Two days later, the Taliban began searching houses for former soldiers and opposition figures. "We knew we had to leave immediately."
They fled to Iran. The situation for Afghan refugees there was catastrophic—poverty, exploitation, and deportations. For Imran, deportation would have been life-threatening: "My father's enemies would have handed me over to the Taliban. They would have imprisoned and tortured me. They would have abused and enslaved me."
The 16-year-old attempted to escape alone. The family sold an inherited house and hired a smuggler. "Everyone cried when we said goodbye. Even my father. We didn't know if we'd ever see each other again."
The journey to Turkey involved days of walking over mountains, under constant threat from smugglers. "Anyone who refused to go further was beaten. Women and children were also beaten. Young girls were sometimes raped by the smugglers." Imran was arrested, beaten, and deported back to Iran ten times. He finally made it to Istanbul. There he lived for three months, partially homeless and in great uncertainty. "If the police catch you, you'll be deported to Afghanistan."
From Iran, his father organized his onward escape to Greece and sold his mother's gold jewelry. The smuggler gave him a small boat. "I saw bodies floating in the water. I thought we were going to drown, too." From Greece, he made it to Serbia via North Macedonia – but there, border police caught him and took his last money. "Then they kicked me and said if I didn't leave, they would shoot me."
His second attempt to enter Serbia also ended in a pushback – Serbian police beat him for ten minutes and sprayed pepper spray in his eyes. "I couldn't see anything, but they kept beating him." The third time, they kicked him bloody and set dogs on him. "They didn't act like human beings. I begged them, but they didn't care that I was just a child."
He finally managed to cross the border, crammed into a van via Hungary, into Austria, and finally into Germany. There, at the age of 16, he was admitted to a clearing house. The age assessment was delayed for months: "They simply said I was over 18."
He was moved to a camp and shared a room with three adults. Only with legal assistance was he able to initiate a new age verification process. This ultimately confirmed his minority. He finally gained access to education. "For the first time, I had a tiny bit of hope. But I still ask myself: Why was I deprived of the opportunity to learn for over a year?"
The family's situation in Iran is hopeless: Their visas have expired, and their lease will soon be too. The father works as a day laborer in construction. Escape is too expensive and too dangerous. "Every day is dominated by the fear of deportation. They would kill my father. And my mother and little brother would be defenseless against the Taliban."
He thinks a lot about his traumatic escape – and about the countless people who do not survive the flight: "Their bodies are found somewhere at the borders, some simply disappear."