Norwich boy fled Taliban at age of 8

Emran Khaksar, 12, from Afghanistan, who now lives in Norwich

SAM EMANUEL
30 November 2009 13:51



At the age of eight Emran Khaksar witnessed horrendous killings, was kidnapped and nearly forced to become a Taliban suicide bomber in Afghanistan. But he escaped, spent three years without his parents on the road in Iran, Turkey and France, and finally ended up - in Norwich.

The youngster, now 12, is living with a family in the north of the city after his nightmare journey, which involved sleeping rough and smuggling himself on to lorries and trains in a bid to get to safety.

Emran now attends Sewell Park college and is learning English. He still practises his Muslim faith, and reads the Koran most days.

He said: “I like England and I am very lucky. There are schools here and no trouble - there is no killing of people. In Afghanistan the police aren't all good police, some of them get paid money to be bad.”

Today he has spoken for the first time about his ordeal after being presented with an award at the Norfolk Looked-After Children Awards at St Andrew's Hall.

Emran, who has three younger brothers and three sisters, was born in the small Afghan town of Khost, where his police chief father was attacked and injured by the Taliban. Two of his father's policemen friends were killed by a Taliban bomb planted in their home.

While he was still a young child, his uncle kidnapped him to train him as a Taliban suicide bomber, but Emran escaped.

The youngster, who is now learning to speak English, said: “I was not happy because there were a lot of problems in Afghanistan and no schools. I was very scared of the Taliban.

“They took young people and trained them to strap bombs to their body to kill people - English people or police or other people. I am very lucky to be here.”

Emran was just eight when he left Afghanistan, after his family, who stayed in Afghanistan, paid thousands of pounds to an agent to ensure his safe passage to England. They travelled with a group of other refugees, but when they reached Pakistan, the agent ran away with the money.

The other refugees left Emran when they got to their next stop, which was Iran, and he said he “slept under the trees” alone.

Fortunately, because there were a relatively large number of Afghan people travelling through the country, the frightened child was able to find companions with whom to continue his journey, and travelled across Iran by climbing into the back of trucks.

He was arrested twice by the Iranian police after being handed over by Kurdish people, but managed to escape both times.

From Iran he travelled to Turkey, where he travelled on foot, and was again arrested and put in prison by “a lot of police”. He was then let out and ordered to leave the country.

From Turkey, he took an inflatable boat across to the coast of Greece. He spent a year in Greece living in a house in Athens with an uncle, who is now 16, and then went to Italy for about one week.

He had to travel in a refrigerated truck carrying oranges, and after the long journey it was a whole day before he could walk again because of the cold, cramped conditions.

Emran then hid himself on a train to France, but got picked up by police and sent back to Italy several times. When he eventually got to France, he spent a night sleeping rough under a bridge in Paris and then lived for a year in the camp known as “the jungle”, where migrants gather to try to reach the UK. The illegal gathering of tents and shelters are unsanitary and house about 1,500 illegal immigrants.

From the camp, the immigrants board lorries in the hope they will be driving to England, and Emran was taken to Belgium several times before he boarded the right lorry. Eventually he managed to smuggle himself into one of two containers on a truck going to England with 35 other Afghans - five of whom were youngsters like himself.

He arrived at the docks in King's Lynn, where the authorities recognised him as a minor and called a social worker, who arranged him a room to stay in overnight.

The next day, on January 14 this year, he was taken to the home of Steve and Sue Ginn, who live in the north of the city.

The couple, who also look after a 12-year-old girl, took him in and he has been living there ever since.

Mr Ginn, 55, who worked at the YMCA in Norwich before giving up work to look after his foster children full-time, said: “He has settled in quite well. We love having him here and him and Tory get on great.

“He is still in touch with his family and we buy him Afghanistan phone cards so he can speak to his parents. We are Christians and he is Muslim, so we drop him off at Islamic School at the John Innes Centre while we go to church.

“His English is coming on fantastically well. He also goes to the international youth club in the city centre every week, which he loves. He is so passionate about learning and getting a good education.”

Emran has been given leave to remain in England until he is 15, when he will appeal again to be allowed to stay in the country.

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