Return to Iraq, a broken country

KABUL / BAGDAD - Tine Danckaers travelled to the Middle East and spoke in Afghanistan and Kurdish Iraq with people who applied for asylum in Belgium but returned to their country of origin 'voluntarily' or after a forced deportation. A dossier on return as part of the European migration policy, the flexible interpretation of security, perspectives or lack thereof, homesickness and paralysis.

ANTWERP - The 40-year war in Afghanistan is pushing more and more Afghans to become refugees. Their numbers are also increasing in Belgium. In the port city of Antwerp, Afghans have become the fifth largest nationality group. Gie Goris went to Antwerp and listened to older and younger, male and female, Pashtu and Dari-speaking refugees and migrants from the war-torn country.

ANKARA - One image that will undoubtedly mark 2021 is that of the tens of thousands of desperate Afghans drumming outside the closed gates of Kabul airport to get away. The borders were sealed tight, yet hundreds of thousands of Afghans managed to flee. A number of them reached Turkey in the hope of being able to ask for international protection there. An illusion, as it turns out. After the fall of Kabul, Turkey, with the help of Europe, also sealed its borders and stopped registering Afghan asylum seekers. And the waiting lists for resettlement to Europe are endless, so there is little relief to be expected there either.