0:04

And

0:05

one story that always kind of captures my

0:07

imagination.

0:10

On the street's lost culture. Mhmm.

0:12

And you're listening to Kerning cultures.

0:15

You're earning cultures.

0:20

And the question is where

0:22

we were last time. Where

0:24

we were last time. So I think

0:26

you were

0:29

Last time on Kerning Cultures, we left Aizen

0:31

in Afghan teenager in Turkey attempting

0:33

to cross into Bulgaria. He

0:36

was beaten, strip naked, and

0:38

ransacked of all his belongings. A

0:41

warning before we continue, this episode

0:43

contains references to violence and self

0:46

harm. If you're around kids or you're

0:48

not into that kind of thing, consider skipping

0:50

this one. My

0:52

other note too is that this is part

0:54

three of a four part series. And

0:56

if you haven't heard the first and second

0:58

episode, I would go back and listen to

1:00

those because it'll help you understand this episode

1:02

a lot better. They

1:05

said it's like nine hours walking, you would be

1:07

in the Bulgaria. Thirteen days.

1:10

Walk thirteen days. I don't know how it was,

1:12

like, survive. People who want

1:15

food, a lot of food, they

1:17

finish

1:17

everything. People are all dying.

1:21

With such little sustenance and no turning

1:23

back, Aizen relied on this one drink

1:26

that a lot of us have heard

1:27

of. That's why I love Rick Paul,

1:29

you know? You get tired.

1:32

You drink one. Oh, energy.

1:34

I don't know how you feel like, cool.

1:37

I can walk more. After 234

1:39

hours. Again, some

1:42

refresh best thing

1:44

ever. In case you miss

1:46

that, it's none other than Red

1:48

Bull. Before

1:52

we go back into Isen's story, we're

1:54

gonna go back in time. About

1:56

a hundred years ago. And we wanna tell

1:58

you about a guy named, Cedad You

2:02

won't find much online about him, maybe

2:04

a few photographs, but his story

2:06

is mostly left behind by the digital

2:08

age. Harry

2:10

Shaw was Afghan, born in eighteen

2:12

ninety four, And as a young man

2:15

in the nineteen tens, he left Afghanistan

2:17

and traveled to Scotland where he studied

2:19

medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

2:21

And back then, travel for an Afghan

2:23

like Ali Shah was easier. He

2:26

was admired and sometimes

2:28

even welcome. Imagine that.

2:31

Adishan married a Scottish woman and

2:33

became an author, writing more than seventy

2:35

books, books on Islam, politics,

2:37

culture, and his travels. He

2:40

was also a skilled diplomat, and

2:42

he became the personal adviser and confidant

2:44

of several leaders. Big time leaders

2:47

like criminal attitude of Turkey, king

2:49

of the love Jordan, king of insau,

2:51

the founder of Saudi Arabia, king Zaga

2:53

of Albania, the Agha Khan, the

2:55

roster is quite impressive. He

2:58

gained a reputation as a kingmaker, moving

3:00

in royal circles, criss crossing Europe

3:03

and the Middle East and Afghanistan. A

3:05

hundred years ago, this kind of long distance

3:07

travel was slow, but pretty straightforward.

3:10

He would go overland from Afghanistan

3:12

to Mumbai then catch a ship to Europe.

3:16

Surprisingly and maybe unsurprisingly, a

3:18

hundred years ago, borders were more permeable,

3:21

and pliable. It was a time before

3:23

we designed systems and hierarchy is

3:25

controlling who can travel and who can't.

3:29

And thinking about the legacy of Alisha

3:31

and Afghan who had the opportunity to travel

3:34

to get an education and even find love

3:36

and gain influence. You can't

3:38

help but think of modern day afghans,

3:40

stripped of that chance to be someone renowned

3:43

like Alisha. Today

3:45

for afghans trying to get to Europe, the

3:47

story is completely different. Fortress

3:51

Europe, as it's often referred to,

3:53

is building new fences and pouring

3:55

more and more money into border patrols

3:57

and militarizing its edges. And

4:01

what a shame that is? Alicia

4:04

died in nineteen two nine. He was

4:06

hit by Kerning Coca Cola truck.

4:09

Decades later, there would be Aizen, a

4:11

teenager with a different kind of legacy,

4:14

and field of Horus by Red Bull.

4:17

This is Aizen, the most unlucky

4:19

person in the world. Part

4:21

three, king of Serbia. Producer,

4:25

Adrienne, takes it from here.

4:27

It

4:28

was May twenty nineteen and

4:31

the middle of the holy month of Ramadan.

4:33

After that first attempt to cross into

4:35

Europe, Aizen tried again a

4:37

couple of days later. With

4:39

a group of about twenty five refugees,

4:42

He walked through forests along the Turkish

4:44

Bulgarian border to reach a

4:46

point that wasn't monitored. Their

4:49

they scaled two very high barbed

4:51

wire fences using a ladder

4:53

they're smuggler provided and got into

4:55

Bulgaria.

4:58

A really huge force. You

5:00

cannot see like at night, you

5:02

cannot see, like, ten centimeters

5:04

of in your front.

5:07

It's so dark. You have to

5:09

hold your each other packs to

5:11

to not lose the weight. And

5:13

there's Yeah. He's

5:15

in the front. He said to you from the

5:17

beginning. If you stay behind, I'm

5:19

not gonna come back.

5:21

After thirteen days, the group was out

5:24

of food completely and relied

5:26

on streams in the forest for water.

5:29

Then they were picked up by another smuggler

5:31

who took them to a house where they were

5:33

told to hide and wait. They

5:36

stayed there for two days. No

5:38

food, no going out, just

5:40

waiting, anxious about being

5:42

caught by the Bulgarian border police.

5:45

Finally, a smuggler brought them some sandwiches,

5:49

We didn't eat for two days because they don't want the

5:52

police to catch us. The time that

5:54

he brought us food, we took the food, he

5:56

win the police game. Like

5:58

how? So we know that he called the police.

6:00

Like, there's no other way. How

6:02

do the police know that we are here? Nobody go

6:04

out. Nothing. So we were inside

6:06

the city. We were all scared that they were sent us

6:08

back to Shuky. They took us to a police

6:10

station. They took fingerprints

6:12

and stuff. And he was

6:14

like, okay. Where are you from? I was

6:16

like, Afghanistan? And he was like,

6:17

no. Wow. Like, what do you mean?

6:20

No. Here we

6:22

go again. Questions and confusion

6:24

about the way Aizen looks followed him

6:26

everywhere he

6:27

went. He took me to

6:29

a room. He was like, no. He

6:31

looked rushing. He he speak rushing with me. I was

6:33

like, I'm like, what are you saying?

6:35

What are you talking about? Then

6:38

the guy says, oh, okay. Wait.

6:40

Call the translator. So the

6:42

translator was telling me that he's saying that he don't

6:44

look like transwear 3 Don't make trouble

6:46

for me as well. I was like, what do you mean to make a

6:48

crown from a cancer? They

6:50

took our fingerprints and stuff. And

6:52

they took me to this open camp --

6:55

Okay. -- in Soviet. The

6:57

camp called Evinarampo. How

7:02

will you overcome?

7:07

Vinerampa is on the northern

7:10

edge of Sofia. The capital of

7:12

Bulgaria. It's a refugee

7:14

center mostly for minors, and

7:16

it was a grimy camp. The

7:19

food was particularly bad, bread

7:21

and boiled potatoes. And

7:23

food was a particular challenge at this

7:25

time. Because it was Ramvan and

7:27

Aizen and some of the Muslim refugees he

7:29

was with were fasting. Was

7:33

also particular challenge because just

7:35

like every place they've been in before, they

7:37

weren't exactly welcomed.

7:50

I went to this mask

7:52

that Guevrie died for so

7:54

it was a mask far away from the camp

7:56

that Guevara How can people

7:58

do the RevPAR? They come back? And we did

8:00

RevPAR. We came back.

8:03

We're waiting in the bus stop like we had ten guys

8:05

or eight guys, nine. A

8:07

group of five people came with

8:09

knives, with chains, and

8:11

stuff. I don't know what

8:13

they were saying, so I was like, What do

8:15

you want? I was trying to speak English

8:17

like what do you

8:18

want? One

8:19

of these guys tapped Aizen on the shoulder

8:22

and pointed behind him. His

8:24

friends were all sprinting

8:25

away. So he attacked with

8:27

the knife. Like, the knife

8:29

went through my clothes, and it doesn't

8:31

touch my body. I was so lucky. I

8:33

like I don't know how this happened. I

8:36

punched this guy in front. How how

8:40

already? They've old

8:42

born. Yeah, nineteen

8:44

twenty one, something like this.

8:46

Like, older than us. So I run this

8:48

site and they're all following

8:49

me. It's hard to confirm these

8:51

details, but Eissen told me

8:53

that this group started attacking

8:55

him. One guy had a long

8:57

chain which he whipped in Aizen

8:59

direction. It wrapped around

9:01

his neck and pulled him down to the

9:03

ground. They start kicking me

9:05

with the with their

9:07

feet, stand again

9:09

crunch. Run. Run.

9:12

Run. Run. Run. They're in following me.

9:15

Oh, I don't have a run. I was so

9:17

quick. Like, I didn't even look

9:19

my back. If they are coming or they said,

9:21

phew. So when I look my back, I

9:23

can't see anyone. Oh, I'm good. And then I saw a

9:25

girl sitting there and I speak with her

9:27

English. Fortunately, she was

9:29

speaking English or, like, these guys attacked

9:31

me when you called the police, like, even if I called the

9:32

police, the police would not help the breeze standing there

9:35

and I saw what happened to you. The

9:37

spy stander took eyes into a shop

9:40

nearby, brought him some water, to

9:42

wash the blood off his neck, and

9:44

told him to wait inside. Once

9:47

the bus that would take Aizen back to the

9:49

camp arrived, she told him to get on

9:51

board

9:51

quickly. So

9:51

we arrived to the camp.

9:53

I still to the police. The police see. I

9:55

don't care. Or you lift the camp. Don't go

9:57

outside. Oh, like, I'm fasting. I'm

9:59

going to eat there. What

10:01

do you want me eating this candy? Like, I don't

10:03

care. And I

10:05

am so angry.

10:06

Like, so so angry. Won't

10:09

even talk to me. The

10:12

next morning, Aizen a

10:14

formal complaint to the local

10:16

police. The translator who

10:18

helped him write this said he was attacked

10:20

because he looked Russian and

10:23

advised him to stay inside the camp.

10:25

Despite how he described

10:27

that racist attack as

10:29

if it was a scene from an anime fight,

10:32

Eisen was deeply affected by it.

10:34

Assulted with knives and chains in

10:36

a country where he was alone and didn't

10:38

know anyone. And whenever

10:41

things became tough, he would go back to

10:43

his first love football.

10:45

So I didn't go out of the camp because I

10:48

was kinda scared for two days.

10:50

After two days, my Finnish

10:52

friend came and say, oh, don't stay here a lot. He will

10:54

find Mandaril problem and stuff. Let's go play

10:56

football on a cookie. We go

10:59

outside, two

11:01

guys, mouth in the hand. They're

11:03

looking at me and doing like

11:04

this. Here, I Aizen turn the

11:06

middle finger.

11:07

What the hell is wrong with you? I haven't done

11:10

anything. Then

11:12

I decide how that's

11:13

no. I don't understand my curiosity.

11:15

There's no way I'm staying my curiosity.

11:18

Like, the coolest guy was playing in a football team

11:20

Aizen Bulgaria, he said, you play good

11:22

stuff. We can go. We can do the

11:24

trade. And I'm sure they would accept

11:26

you.

11:28

Yeah. Yeah. I was happy with that. Okay.

11:31

If I can't believe it. When I see this, I was

11:33

like, no way I'm

11:35

staying in Bulgaria. There is

11:37

no challenge.

11:42

It's like a game of snakes and ladders.

11:44

Eitan had gotten so far, only

11:46

to be met by racism and xenophobia

11:49

that would take him back onto the

11:51

smugglers path.

11:52

But

11:52

this was a

11:53

reality for many refugees in Europe.

11:55

Ever since the peak arrival

11:57

of migrants from the Middle East in twenty

12:00

fifteen violence and

12:02

attacks on refugees have increased

12:04

sharply. He said the

12:06

worst racism he experienced was

12:08

in Bulgaria. And

12:10

so he decided to continue on towards

12:12

France. He stashed a few

12:14

cookies into his pocket from

12:16

Vina Rumpakamp. And with

12:18

five others headed to Serbia.

12:21

Being smuggled in Europe was no different

12:23

to being smuggled in

12:24

Iran. They hiked for

12:26

hours slapped in the forest, then got

12:28

crammed into a van. It

12:31

was first day of eat, it was secondary

12:33

of eat, I can't remember. We

12:35

arrived in the capital of Serbia

12:37

called Biligrat, a

12:39

place called Afghan park,

12:42

because there is a lot of Afghan.

12:45

We spent

12:48

the night kind in, walking around

12:50

and stuff. Tell morning, eight o'clock, we

12:52

go to this office, which

12:55

is for a few years, they register your name and

12:57

they send you to the cops. I went

12:59

to the office, say where you're from there.

13:01

Like, again, same for a question. Are you sure you

13:03

have gone? Like, what do you mean? I'm sure you

13:05

have gone? Of

13:06

course, I am. There

13:09

was a camp near in

13:12

Belgrade, but they killed

13:14

someone in the

13:15

camp, so they closed a company, they don't send anyone

13:17

to this camp. Instead,

13:19

they were planning to send Aizen to a camp

13:21

called Ciniza, which is

13:23

about four hours drive Southwest of Belgrade.

13:26

But the office decided to wait until a few

13:28

more refugees arrived, so they could

13:30

transport all of them together. So

13:32

Isan stayed in this registration office

13:35

for five

13:35

days. I started doing translation

13:37

for the embassy letter translation was on

13:39

holiday. So they all of the

13:41

office become my friend. All of the office.

13:43

Like, they just become friend with

13:45

me because I was doing this job with

13:46

him. A few

13:49

days later, The Kurdish guys

13:51

from Bulgaria, the ones he was

13:53

playing football with, also

13:55

arrived in Serbia. From

13:57

Afghan park, they went to the same

13:59

refugee registration office where

14:01

they were surprised to see Aizen working

14:03

and doing translation for the

14:05

Serbian authorities. Now that

14:07

there were more migrants, they got

14:09

taken to the town called Sionitza in

14:11

the southwest of

14:11

Serbia. Wow. Isen showed

14:14

me on the map. See, it needs

14:16

a

14:16

It's a really small place,

14:18

but people are muslim there. So

14:20

it's a it's a it's a small town.

14:22

Yeah. It's like a town.

14:24

Okay. So

14:26

we play football in

14:28

here. Nice.

14:29

It was nice. Not

14:31

nice, but good. Because I

14:33

was in York and stuff. So

14:37

after the break, traveling this

14:39

far starts to take its toll

14:41

on Isen. And the world starts to

14:43

shut down.

14:55

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15:42

Aizen didn't stay in that camp for very

15:45

long. After a few days, he

15:47

went up to the north of Serbia

15:49

to a town called Subautica on the

15:51

border with Hungary. Subautica

15:54

is a major hub for refugees.

15:56

The surrounding Red Anavat's

15:59

forest is less than a kilometer from the

16:01

Hungarian border. And

16:03

it looks like the aftermath of a music

16:05

festival. Camping tents, proppant

16:08

between trees and

16:10

trash spread across the muddy floor.

16:12

Crushed energy drink cans, water

16:14

bottles, cigarette but

16:17

plastic bags. As

16:19

of now, there are more than three thousand

16:21

refugees in and around Sibotica.

16:23

Hoping to cross into Hungary. After

16:26

that, traveling through the rest of the EU

16:28

becomes easier. It's known

16:31

as the Balkan route. And that's

16:33

where Eisen was. By that

16:34

point, he had traveled through five

16:37

countries already and more than seven

16:39

thousand kilometers.

16:41

There is no sense you will cross by yourself.

16:44

No chance. Even

16:46

if you do, every place is belonging to

16:48

a smucker. If they catch you,

16:50

you know, from their group, first,

16:52

they will beat you a lot. If they

16:54

are nice, they will leave you.

16:56

If they are bad, they will call

16:58

your family in black man trust for

17:00

money. If they're a bad button, they will just

17:02

kill you.

17:05

Choked between these ruthless smugglers and

17:08

violent border police. Refugees

17:11

paid large sums of money to

17:13

cross. In this case, either by clinging on

17:15

to the underside of a moving

17:18

train or by sneaking into the back

17:20

of a freight truck. Without

17:22

the driver noticing, and waiting

17:24

it out until the truck has crossed

17:26

the

17:26

border. The trains are coming different lanes.

17:29

It will try to Austria, to

17:31

Hungary, to Germany, different. I

17:33

we spent ten days. Nothing

17:35

came. And my legs get worse

17:37

and worse. The Smucker said, okay.

17:40

Go to camp because your legs are getting worse and

17:42

worse. But to get go back to the

17:44

camp. Seven days every

17:46

day, they give me this

17:47

serum, syrup, what you call it, The

17:49

water thing? Oh, the

17:50

ivy ivy dry.

17:52

Yeah. Everyday morning.

17:55

Everyday for seven days for

17:56

my legs. Yeah. It was

17:59

so bad. My feets were all

18:01

destroyed. My hands weak. That's how

18:03

we come to

18:03

you. Yeah. Eisen's

18:06

feet were infected, trekking through

18:08

all sorts of terrain, sleeping in

18:10

damn places, hiking without

18:12

proper shoes. He showed me pictures

18:14

of his feet, they were absolutely

18:17

ravaged with cuts, bug

18:19

bites, soars, bruises,

18:22

infected blisters. Back at

18:24

the CNITC camp, the doctors gave him

18:26

a strong course of antibiotics, alone

18:30

and with a very high fever. Eisen

18:32

stayed in that camp and waited for the

18:34

infection to pass.

18:40

Eventually, he went back to

18:43

Subartica and tried to cross again.

18:44

But when he

18:45

was paying the smuggler, a middle man took

18:47

the money and disappeared. There's

18:49

always a middle man to

18:52

go through. Even the smuggler

18:54

can get screwed by them. A

18:56

smuggler was absolutely furious.

18:58

Nothing to normalize. Aizen fault, you told me,

19:00

give money. Give money. But if he didn't pay to you, he's not

19:02

my fault. He was like, I don't know

19:04

what to do with you guys. You guys are not paying money.

19:06

So you were like torturing us for a long

19:09

time. Eitan was held

19:11

in a burnt out building near

19:13

the train tracks of Subautica.

19:15

The smuggler kept refugees there

19:18

temporarily while he arranged for them to

19:19

cross. But because he

19:22

couldn't pay his fee, the smuggler kept him

19:24

hostage for

19:25

months. It was there so long

19:27

that he started doing DIY

19:29

projects in that building,

19:31

bringing an extension cord and

19:33

fixing the

19:34

lights. He had no idea how long

19:36

he was going to be made to stay there.

19:38

And just like

19:39

in Turkey, Eisen found himself

19:42

working for a smuggler and gaining

19:44

their trust.

19:45

Yeah. There was nothing for me to do because they were not letting

19:47

me to go anywhere. Not letting me try. Not

19:49

letting me go, camp. If the

19:51

smart didn't need something, he called me.

19:53

Brittman, come down, and go get done, buy him

19:55

secret, bring food father, everyone.

19:57

And that wasn't my job. Did

19:59

he get mad? No.

20:01

He just bought me clothes. Sometimes he

20:04

bought me energy drinks. Kerning,

20:06

I woke up. He called me. He called me red man. He said red

20:08

man. Come here. I go to him.

20:10

He said, let's go to shop. When did the shop,

20:12

he bought me clothes. He said, he

20:14

won't hate I'm like, no. Fine. everything, and he

20:16

brought me back. He brought me shoes.

20:20

Okay. Thank you. So he brought me

20:22

everything. Like, he was so nice to

20:24

me. It was like my older brother because I don't have anyone. He Aizen

20:26

everything. Jesus. Yeah.

20:28

He was

20:29

nice to me, not

20:30

to alone. The smuggler

20:34

Aizen red man because of

20:36

his reddish

20:36

hair. It's a little odd to

20:39

hear this smuggler describes so

20:41

fondly. Like an older brother. I can't

20:43

help but notice how vulnerable Isen was.

20:46

He was a teenager by

20:48

himself without any support

20:50

or money. Ethan stayed

20:52

like this for half

20:54

a year. Eventually, the

20:56

smuggler realized he wasn't going to get

20:59

his money. And let go to

21:01

try to find his way to Hungary. He

21:03

said he'd even show him

21:05

how to do

21:05

it, but he didn't promise it would be

21:07

easy. So they let he let me try. I

21:09

try. They catch me. I come

21:12

back. Start Kerning every

21:13

night. Try try try

21:16

come back. Try come back. He showed

21:18

me the way one night. He go like this like

21:20

this. Every night goes there to another

21:22

place to drive the lorry in

21:24

trucks. Every time he tried

21:26

to cross into Hungary, the police

21:28

would catch him.

21:29

The Hungarian

21:30

border is closely guarded. It's

21:33

the entrance to the EU and Hungary's

21:36

current right wing government has made

21:38

it their priority to stop migrants

21:40

from crossing the border. Border

21:43

police have been accused of

21:45

systematic abuse against people on

21:47

the move. In twenty twenty

21:50

two alone, they've pushed back more than

21:52

two hundred thousand refugees from

21:54

Serbia, mostly avagans

21:56

and Syrians. Meanwhile,

21:59

Hungary has allowed in more than six hundred

22:01

and twenty thousand refugees from

22:03

Ukraine. Aizen

22:11

kept trying summer past

22:13

and autumn two. Winter came

22:16

again. He spent almost all of

22:18

twenty nineteen being held by

22:20

smugglers and failing to cross the

22:21

borders. It got

22:24

really cold. of cold that seeps

22:26

into your bones.

22:27

It happens in a time that the winter

22:30

came where, like, it's so cold the

22:32

train don't come a lot and

22:34

stuff. Okay, Rick van.

22:36

Time for you to go to come. Go

22:38

to come. Powerlessico. I ask him many times

22:40

before he say

22:41

no. He will skip.

22:45

Tired and defeated eyes

22:47

and decided to stop trying to cross into

22:49

Hungary and instead go

22:51

back to their refugee camp to rest for a while.

22:54

This was February twenty twenty.

22:56

The major developments in

22:58

China's coronavirus outbreak way.

23:00

Two major cities are now under lockdown

23:02

as China races to contain the mysterious

23:04

illness. And as the toll surges across the

23:06

continent, Europe the epicenter of the

23:09

COVID-nineteen crisis. And what

23:11

happened is? COVID-nineteen. The

23:13

virus has infected nearly six

23:15

hundred people in at

23:16

He cannot go outside the camp.

23:20

Stay in the camp.

23:23

Nothing changed. Sleep,

23:25

wake up, eat.

23:28

That was our routine on the

23:30

ramble, then come. Coke. To

23:32

rather than play cards. There's nothing

23:35

to

23:35

do, and also worry that what will happen

23:38

to

23:38

me. Ethan

23:42

stayed in Serbia

23:45

for more than a year. Remember

23:47

the group of refugees in Turkey

23:49

that he was guiding through

23:51

Istanbul? The ones that got stopped by police,

23:53

that group got deported back

23:55

to Afghanistan, then tried

23:58

again the same route. Through the

24:00

mountains of Iran, into

24:02

Turkey, and then Bulgaria,

24:04

and then Serbia. This

24:06

time, they made it all the way to

24:08

France. That whole time,

24:10

Isan Aizen stuck in Serbia.

24:12

He was there so long that

24:14

other refugees crowned him

24:16

king of Serbia. He said, this

24:18

is his land, and

24:21

he's not going anywhere. I

24:28

told you what happened to Isen's feet.

24:30

It was hard for him to walk, but

24:32

also to do what he loves most,

24:35

play football. The physical toll of

24:37

walking so far from home and

24:39

harsh

24:39

terrain, often beaten by smugglers

24:41

or border police. All of that

24:44

adds

24:44

up. But there's the invisible

24:47

tool too. A strong

24:49

warning that this next segment

24:51

includes mentions suicide and self

24:53

harm. Skip forward eight

24:55

minutes if you'd like to avoid

24:57

it.

24:59

My mental

25:00

health was, how can

25:03

I say, up?

25:06

From long time ago,

25:09

not the journey we're stuck.

25:11

The pressure of the family

25:13

are out of stress.

25:15

Lot of pressure in your mind. What I'm gonna do,

25:18

what will happen, what cannot happenable

25:20

can work. Like, you have to have a

25:22

way to help them. If you

25:24

don't, you're under pressure. Why you're not working?

25:27

Why you're sleeping? You're just born to

25:29

eat and sleep that's it. You're lazy.

25:31

You're like dead. You're like that.

25:34

Okay. I didn't

25:35

even try to to side in of Afghanistan

25:38

was not once two,

25:40

three times.

25:40

And I was so young, like, I now I

25:43

can remember I was, like, nine, ten years old

25:45

when I had afternoon. Let me see

25:47

how she

25:48

is. Should I do it? Should I not? And

25:50

I

25:50

remember I was so young. I put

25:53

a knife in here, and I

25:55

was like, push it.

25:57

But there's some things that come to your mind because

25:59

you get tired, you know. Like,

26:01

I was asking many times.

26:03

I was like, a lot that

26:06

why I burn. I didn't ask

26:08

you to bring me to

26:11

his

26:11

life. Like, if I can't, I

26:13

can't, but nobody cares. Still

26:15

the same thing. You

26:16

think people believe in mental health and

26:19

our garrison? And

26:22

even if

26:26

you tell

26:28

them, there's another reason for them to shout

26:31

that

26:31

you. So he don't want this. The

26:33

immense pressure from his family in

26:36

Afghanistan on top of the injustice

26:38

of going to adult prison for

26:40

a crime he didn't commit. It all contributed

26:42

to Isen's fragile and mental health. He

26:45

showed me his forearms where

26:47

he would self harm.

26:48

What is it? Yeah. That

26:50

these

26:50

cars where he cannot hit, which is

26:53

good. Where? In

26:55

here. Yeah. You cannot

26:56

see it. Right?

26:58

Because I had it here for a long time, but you cannot

27:01

see it. Eitan's already

27:03

fragile mental health only became

27:05

worse when he got on the road, and

27:07

the realities of being smuggled started

27:09

to sink in. Especially when most

27:12

of the time he was just waiting,

27:15

waiting, waiting, waiting, held

27:18

in terrible conditions. Day by

27:21

day, it was. You

27:23

you don't have anything to do. You just need to

27:25

stay in a room like a

27:27

prisoner. You cannot go out

27:29

because of the police, pressure

27:32

of a smuggler, when you're gonna pay, when

27:34

you're gonna do this, when you gotta

27:36

do that. He feel like

27:38

a he feel like a trust in this

27:40

world. Like he feel

27:43

he feel Aizen he

27:46

You don't enjoy eating, you don't enjoy talking

27:48

with people.

27:49

It's just the only thing that you

27:52

think about is that

27:54

why you are in this

27:57

world, why it is happening to

27:59

me. There are like eight billion

28:01

people. Why me? For

28:03

me, football was the only thing

28:05

that I could enjoy and forgot

28:08

everything, but sometimes when I was like in a

28:10

bad mood, even football was

28:12

like boring. Wanna do it.

28:15

The hopelessness really started

28:18

to

28:18

calcify. Add to it the

28:21

claustrophobia of lockdown. This

28:23

feeling of being unlucky started

28:25

to take

28:26

root. Aizen became convinced that

28:28

he was the source of the bad luck.

28:30

I am the

28:31

most unlike his person in

28:33

the war. I don't think

28:34

there's any medicine for

28:36

it. But it's actually

28:39

like something that sometimes my mind just totally

28:42

get How can

28:44

I say? Get get empty? Feel too

28:46

to empty. And I

28:48

feel like I cannot breathe.

28:52

I was like like this, like,

28:56

don't have anything else to do

28:58

in I start

29:00

Kerning. I

29:05

just wanna do

29:09

something to So I don't want anyone

29:11

to be with me in that

29:11

situation. That's why I was like, just want to

29:14

be alone. Put the blanket

29:16

on my head.

29:19

Aizen shared with me how he tried to

29:22

take his own life in Afghanistan and

29:24

in Turkey

29:25

too, and then again in

29:28

Serbia. I was planning to jump the building.

29:31

The main reason that stop

29:33

me from doing

29:35

suicide, the Nava's cause,

29:37

around. Otherwise, I would be honest.

29:41

Although, Ivan laughs it off now, I've

29:44

heard him when he was in one of those

29:46

few states. When his mind was

29:48

empty as he calls

29:48

it. The most recent

29:51

time

29:51

Isaac tried to self harm, he sent

29:53

a voice note on WhatsApp to

29:56

a friend. A couple of

29:58

days later, he told me about it and

30:00

played me that voice note. It's

30:02

one of the most difficult things

30:04

I've ever heard. You can just

30:07

hear Aizen and sobbing and

30:09

faintly whispering over and

30:10

over. I just want a normal

30:13

life. He doesn't remember sending it or

30:15

even playing it to

30:16

me. You play it for me?

30:19

Today. Yeah. I don't

30:21

remember. It's only

30:22

about as nipaling the voice mail.

30:24

When I hear the voice

30:27

mail, I

30:29

would like is

30:31

that actually me? You don't ask

30:34

question myself because I don't

30:37

really kinda

30:39

cry for a lot of things. Like,

30:41

even if I want to cry I can't,

30:44

like, if people die does not

30:46

make me sad or to make cry for

30:48

them because it's life all gone die one

30:50

day. But when I hear the voice, I was

30:52

like, is that me

30:54

crying? Which is

30:55

weird? Which made me really sad after I

30:58

was like, What's going on with

30:59

me? Isen has seen

31:02

so much of the ugly parts of our world.

31:05

Violence and death and

31:07

injustice, and pedophilia, and

31:10

injury. The physical and mental

31:12

extremes he's been through have left a

31:14

trail of debris that I can't even begin

31:16

to

31:16

comprehend. But these days,

31:18

he's doing better. Here, now

31:20

I'm final, Hamdala. And Hamdala,

31:22

for everything. I'm fine. Which

31:24

is good.

31:25

I don't get

31:28

like the way I used to, but I still

31:30

feel some blah

31:32

blah, which is

31:34

it's it's

31:34

fine. It's like. Yeah. I just don't want

31:36

to feel sad or angry. No.

31:40

Not

31:41

Kerning. Not hurt.

31:44

I

31:45

don't hurt myself now. Which

31:48

is good because I know how it feels when

31:50

you cannot live with Voll for a

31:52

long time.

31:56

I like it emotionally.

32:01

Yeah.

32:02

I was close to crying by stop,

32:05

not crying.

32:09

Honestly, but it doesn't look great. More

32:16

than a year

32:19

after Isen arrived in Serbia

32:21

in June of twenty twenty,

32:24

COVID restrictions lifted slightly. When that

32:27

happened, he took the first opportunity

32:29

to go back to Subodhika, near the

32:31

Hungarian

32:31

border, hoping to cross.

32:35

There, the same smuggler was still

32:36

working. Eisen explained

32:39

how they'd scout trucks waiting at

32:42

border for their specific time to cross into Hungary.

32:44

The drivers were drunk

32:46

or asleep or both

32:49

waiting for their slot. The

32:51

smuggler would look for the trucks that they

32:53

can open easily. Even if they

32:55

made some noise, the drivers are often

32:57

too drunk or out of it

33:00

to notice. He'd open the

33:02

back of a truck, check if he can

33:04

hide refugees inside, and then close

33:06

it and lock it again. Super

33:08

gluing the cables to hide the evidence

33:10

of any cut

33:10

marks. He was

33:12

like, Brickman, just tonight, go please for

33:14

me. I was like, I'm right. I need to sleep. I

33:16

was so tired

33:17

sleepy. I was like, he was like, please for me.

33:20

He opened his back. Get me to rid what?

33:22

Drink this. He was fine.

33:23

So after a few tries,

33:25

they found a truck with a sleeping driver that they

33:28

opened. We opened full

33:30

of tires, all tires,

33:33

like huge tires You were

33:35

like, Rich man, this is the best chance. Like,

33:37

okay. We put all the guys in. And I

33:40

was going to close the door. He was like, why the

33:42

hell you're closing the door? Go inside. I'm like,

33:44

I'm tired. He slapped me, say,

33:46

go inside. So he locked the door. He

33:48

used energy. The driver woke

33:50

up. He was with

33:52

a girl. So to travel with the

33:54

girl, they start having sex, which was so

33:56

weak. I was so

33:58

tired. There was

34:00

five six o'clock in the morning. So I put my jacket on

34:02

my top and I said, I'm going to sleep.

34:06

I slipped. It

34:08

was nine o'clock or ten o'clock, my

34:10

friends say, woke up like this. Like

34:12

woke up. With cross, I was

34:15

like, oh, you might. See how

34:17

we

34:17

cross. We go. Go go go

34:19

one country and another

34:22

country.

34:23

Eisen had gotten away with

34:26

it. After a few

34:28

hours, the police stopped the truck

34:30

and pulled everyone onto the side of

34:32

the road.

34:33

We do know where

34:35

we are. They say, they ask us, do you know

34:37

where we are? Like,

34:38

no. You say you're in Czech Republic.

34:41

I was like, booking. Isen,

34:44

the king of

34:46

Serbia finally crossed into the EU,

34:49

and was in the Republic. He made it

34:52

into Fortress Europe.

34:54

From here, the EU is more relaxed

34:58

border policies. Meant that they could

35:00

pass from one country to another more easily. No ladders,

35:02

over barbed wire

35:03

fences, no border police hunting them

35:05

with sniffer dogs.

35:08

He didn't even need

35:10

a smuggler. Isen could finally get

35:11

to France. Remember, he

35:13

had planned for his journey to take

35:16

three months. Two

35:18

years later, and he was only in Czech

35:19

Republic. We did

35:21

try to interview the smuggler in

35:23

Serbia for the series. But

35:25

he was incredibly difficult to pin

35:28

down. He no longer deals in

35:30

human trafficking. He's actually

35:32

living in

35:34

Switzerland. And gets in touch with Isen from time to time through

35:36

temporary Facebook accounts to remind

35:38

him that he still owed two thousand

35:42

euros. Next time on current cultures,

35:44

there's love and sorcery in

35:48

the air.

35:55

Anyway, I sent him some

35:58

sweets because Yeah. It's

36:00

nice. Nobody nobody knew

36:04

for Halloween

36:06

will be arrested. So, yes. For for the

36:08

first contact, I just wanted to show

36:10

him, I mean it

36:11

seriously, irrelevant to

36:14

health. This episode

36:16

was produced by Al Shibani and edited by Alex Etac

36:18

and me, Dana Baluut. Fact checking

36:21

was by Imman Shahidiv and

36:24

Dana Subree. And sound design was

36:26

by Monzil Hashem and Paul Aloof. Our team also includes Zena

36:28

Deweydaiad, Nadine

36:29

Schackett, and Finbar

36:32

Anderson. A special

36:33

thanks to Tahir Shah, the grandson of

36:36

Cesar Equa Alisha, for sharing

36:38

details about his grandfather

36:40

with us. And thank you to Anton for his

36:42

production support. Thank you for

36:44

listening. We'll see you next week.

36:46

Take care.

36:47

Okay. What are

36:51

you gonna do

36:54

now?

36:55

Yeah. Three

36:57

the -- Okay. --

36:59

by the way. Yeah. I'm

37:01

dead not alone.