When the Taliban took Afghanistan,
so quickly,
communities faced devastation
Fleeing persecution in a chaotic evacuation
Facing suicide bombs and Taliban subjugation.
Journalists, scholars, workers, running for their lives
Minorities facing genocide.
Persecuted women shrink inside,
and hide
from the Taliban
and their brutal form of Islam.
Our legal centre
had 700 desperate calls in a few days.
We worked day and night
trying to get people on flights.
To protect human rights.
To save peoples lives.
To help them survive.
We linked with law firms, and support agencies to take on people’s cases
and give vital community legal education
about humanitarian visa applications.
CLE with interpreters in classrooms, ovals and halls
live gatherings of hundreds of people and more
zoomed to a wider audience.
As the visa process is so fraught
and numbers of visas available so small,
these education sessions have to walk a fine line
between not building expectations about chances and time,
but not shattering hope and belief.
We include counsellors
talking about ways to deal with grief.
We compiled factsheets in English
and the Afghan Dari language
We created an online community group
and continue to feed legal information
and translated communication
to the community from this shattered nation.
Refugee communities have survived
deep persecution, but they’re so traumatised.
There’s devastation, despair, depression
serious harm and death, from repression.
Despite this darkness most build great resilience.
Their strength shines – it’s brilliance.
Our work remains, urgent, ongoing, unfinished
RAILS continues to fight
to advocate for rights.
We won’t be diminished.
By Rob Lachowicz