The statistics on Afghans trafficked into  Europe via North Africa, Greece or Italy are not accurate.

The statistics of Afghan children , the lightest skin the better, trafficked to India  are not accurate.

The history books done in foreign languages about Afghanistan history are not accurate. From the way the populations migrated , to the way they were invaded rather than acculturated,  is not accurate.

The decades of Afghan human trafficking into neighbouring countries, the relative concept of primitive against a flexible convenient conceptualised absolute success is not accurate.

Everything that is possible to serve as basis for my work as historian requires revision and work. I do not have the language skills to apply methods of research I learnt at university otherwise I would study the Afghan languages and foreign words introduced through the times to determine the extension of social and religious habits and economic routes.

On the basis of all of this inherited lack of History research work done specifically to challenge the basic apathetic Afghan Historiography inheritance I wonder what is the point of so much funding wasted on weapons and Tribal warfare. What is the point?

I was going through a UNESCO History book on Afghanistan and the book had so many inaccuracies that was beggars believe. The 20th century of Afghan historiography was written based on  serious mistakes. Tribes of traders and migrants are labelled chronologically as invaders. What will their DNA show? What will their language patois show? What will their food habits and way they practice Religion and family life determine?

A scholarship that labels all conflicts as Islamic extremism or Classic affiliations of Islam leaving behind family structures that in nothing resemble Islamic extremism and clothing styles that  are found today in the north Portugal and rural Spain, has something wrong with it and invites Historians to reconsider Globalising Afghanistan History and identifying the economic routes of the conflicts the country experienced for the past century .

Archaeological findings will keep determining and pinpointing estimated periods of exchange of cultures and introduction of new and more sophisticated ways of creating household goods but will not determine the economic value of forced impoverishment and isolation, that oppression exercised in the shape of forced ignorance and  primitive ways,  have done to benefit the egos and finances of many who rather enjoyed the lack of competitiveness and lack of whiteness that Afghan History and Narrative would place in the crossroads between South East Asia History and Central Asia History.

Ironically that whiteness of Afghans still make them too white to be accurately detected in the International Human Trafficking Statistics – likewise Syrians-  , and too white and too primitive and decent to feature in the Police statistics of International Human Trafficking advertising because the scholarship – the theory – is not preceding enquiry – investigation- , and therefore not preceding money allocation for substantial Afghan Expats centred investigations and crime prevention.

The Historical Narrative of Afghans in Europe since the Ancient Times is not there, the Historical Narrative of Afghans as dynamic merchants and workers is not there , the Historical Narrative of Radical Islam imported as a Religious theoretical structure to a Economic Business Model Construction is not there.

So why would the accurate discourse of Afghans as entitled to Refugees status in Europe or elsewhere be there? Why would the decriminalisation of Afghan victims of Human trafficking meet legal and social institutions effective responses if their acknowledged right to escape war and starvation as consequence of war is not there because they are out of sight?

All the pre conditions – historical! – and all the conditions – present legal and social framework- are in place to normalise the suffering of Afghan Refugees and to perpetuate criminalising   the verbalisation of being a victim of trafficking. ” You as an Afghan had no right to come here, therefore you cannot tell me you were locked in a farm for ten years in India or carrying human defecation in a river in the UK ” because there were mechanisms to assist you in a refugee camp”. ” You as an Afghan are not in our statistics because our scholarship preceded our work that decided that crime prevention , crime estimation and crime fighting in the sphere of International Human Trafficking involves mostly Africans . ” ” You as an Afghan will not see many Afghans sat at the International Crime Court” . ” You as Afghan will not be represented as a vulnerable group because such group does not exist”.

Most likely the system and persons who think like this also believe that these Refugees and fake Asylum seekers would be swimming in money if they were working in Afghan opium farms. Slavery or opium farmers being forced to use drugs to work long hours don’t seem familiar. The Romanian sex workers, Romanian gangs operating in Europe seem familiar because they resemble Drug Dealing Gangs in the UK but the theoretical framework or scholarship that will precede any Police investigation or inclusion of Afghans in International Statistics is not familiar because would place the Drugs going through India or China and getting through Europe like the US Authorities already indicated that these are the main channels of entry in the US and with which Europe has not quite catch up with because the massive amounts of Afghan Drugs in Europe would mean that a massive scholarship would have to be established to investigate the exact percentage of people working in the system and facilitating that same International Drug Trafficking at the level of Drug Transport and at the level of International Money Laundering. Hence the legal framework we have today.

While all the pre conditions -history!- and all the conditions – present legal framework- remain in place Historians will not have much to  work with Afghanistan contemporary History and therefore Afghan History and Afghan Rights will remain out of the Narrative and out of sight.

 

Ariane Brito