Serbia: Afghan boxers find refuge near Belgrade

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A group of professional boxers and members of the Afghanistan National Boxing team found refuge near Belgrade where they trained in a public park on Friday.

The boxers arrived in Serbia on visas for the World Boxing Championship that was held in the Serbian capital from October 24 to November 6 and decided afterwards not to return to their home country amid the political instability brought on by the Taliban takeover.

“We do not have the possibility to go back as we have been threatened. It is possible that if we go back to Afghanistan, we might be killed or tortured as our relatives have been tortured and they are threatening us and our families daily,” boxer Aslami Suliman, explained.

The athletes now run the risk of being deported back to Afghanistan following their visas expiring as Serbia doesn’t grant humanitarian visas, and have asked for their exact location to remain undisclosed.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Waheedullah Hameedi, Secretary General of Afghanistan Boxing Federation: “Unfortunately due to the situation in Afghanistan and the warning we received from Afghanistan we couldn’t return back to Afghanistan at this time. They (the Talibans) are pushing the federation members, our family members of the guys, to ask us to return back. I don’t know what they will do with us but the main reason is they are not accepting us, and they will never accept these guys to continue their sports any more”.

SOT, Waheedullah Hameedi, Secretary General of Afghanistan Boxing Federation: “The main problem for Afghan sportsmen is that Talibans, as usual, as not changeable, they are the same mind. They are saying we are changeable but how come they are changeable when three days before they came to Kabul they did bomb attack, they killed people and they did everything wrong as terrorists. How can they change in three days. Impossible. It is just media marketing that they are changeable. Same to that, just like their first regime, they don’t accept any kind of sport, especially boxing, which is haram according to their minds and they will not allow any more such events to happen in Afghanistan any more. They are just showing that on media in order to receive humanitarian help from different countries.”

SOT, Waheedullah Hameedi, Secretary General of Afghanistan Boxing Federation: “So, regarding the visas, we have already requested to many countries to issue us some visas, including Germany, France and some other countries and there are some green light from certain country for humanitarian (visa). I just want to make it short: support us and do not regret in the future that you didn’t support them because right now you’re losing some of our members on the danger way.”

SOT, Waheedullah Hameedi, Secretary General of Afghanistan Boxing Federation: “So we have just lost two of our guys and we still don’t have any contact from them and we are really very worried about their future and their career right now and about their situation. And currently we are 11 people, and for the future plan, we are not sure what will happen, and maybe they will try some illegal way which is really painful for us, but if they are not receiving humanitarian visas so they need to save their lives anyway.”

SOT, Rahmani Ramish, Boxer from Afghanistan (Dari): “If we go back, we might be tortured or threatened with death. Our relatives are summoned daily and threatened. We do not want to go back, we hope that a country help us with a visa and issue us one.”

SOT, Rahmani Ramish, Boxer from Afghanistan (Dari): “We cannot really do this sport there since boxing is haram (forbidden or proscribed by Islamic law). They tell us boxing is haram and they do not permit it.”

SOT, Aslami Suliman, Boxer from Afghanistan (Dari): “We do not have the possibility to go back as we have been threatened. It is possible that if we go back to Afghanistan, we might be killed or tortured as our relatives have been tortured and they are threatening us and our families daily. They tell our families we must go back to Afghanistan but if we go back we might, or let’s say 100 percent, we might get killed and they might cut our hands. They threaten our relatives daily, we do not want to go back to Afghanistan. We request from European countries to give us visas so we can live in good countries and that we can help our families by bringing them here since life in Afghanistan is not good anymore.”

#AfghanRefugees #Belgrade #Serbia

Video ID: 20211217-037

Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20211217-037
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