OPEN LETTER

                    Paris january 7th
Being afhan in Paris

They are young, some are barely 15 years old, none is over 30.  The luckiest ones have a shawl and a hat.  Hardly anyone has gloves.  The thermometre is at 0 degrees. What difference does it make ?  At any rate, it's not their pityful campfire, two dismal planks, four humid boxes, that will warm them.
 
There's about 150 of them.  Five hundred in all of Paris, who walk around in their punctured tennis shoes, turning around and around without finding a place to warm themselves.
 
They are Afghans.
 
They have left their life, their family, their friends, their country.  Most of them are from regions that are controlled by the taliban.  Some don't.  What does it matter. Bombs are exploding in Kabul.  The whole country is slipping into war.

France, that means us, is chasing them as if they were criminals.  Handcuffs, airplane : they are handed over to the bearded fanatics, for those are the only ones who open wide their arms to receive them.

Remember those times : a minor was still called a child.  No minister then would have dared to make us believe that it is right to leave a child out in the street in wintertime.  Even a foreign child.

And there certainly must have been a time when an immigrant was called a human being.  Even if he lacked proper documents.

Those children, those human beings have come to us carried by hope to escape the violence.  To study.  To lead a peaceful life.  To have dignity.

That should not be too much to ask.  Let's not throw into the waters of the canal * the coat that St. Martin shared with someone poor.

Signed : Atiq Rahimi

 
Press contact : Priscilla Telmon - priscilla@free.fr
***
 
* Most of them are camping in the neighbourhood of the Canal St.Martin, a canal in a neighbourhood in central Paris.
 
 
All you have to do, is type your name in the box at the end of the page  in french "LETTRE OUVERTE" to add your name to the full list
So what if you are not French, we are all co-responsible, similar things are happening in our own countries.
And there's nothing wrong with a western government realising that it is not only a concern of its own citizens but that  'the whole world's watching'.
 
Thanks in advance for adding your signature