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Desperate Afghan refugee sets himself on fire in Indonesia

The 'kind heart' who gave an Afghan family new home


December 04, 2021 00:00:00


Burhan and his family on an RAF plane leaving Afghanistan

MEDAN (Indonesia), Dec 03 (Al Jazeera): Afghan refugee Ezat Najafi sensed something was wrong when his friend and fellow refugee, Ahmad Shah, began to behave erratically in front of the Indonesian Organization for Migration (IOM) building in the Indonesian city of Medan.

For a month, a group of Afghan refugees - some of whom have been living in limbo in Indonesia for almost a decade - had been staging a 24-hour protest in a makeshift camp in front of the IOM office, sleeping in tents pitched in the forecourt.

The IOM is responsible for the care of refugees while they are in Indonesia awaiting resettlement in a third country.

"I tried to save him and talk to him," Najafi, 30, told Al Jazeera. He came to Indonesia in 2015.

"I said, 'Please don't do this'. Suddenly he poured petrol on his clothes and took out two lighters, one in each hand. I tried to talk to him and told him to be patient but he didn't listen."

A BBC report adds: It is a dark, cold night in Aberdeen but as the Vesal family step out of the car at the end of their 10-hour journey Helga Macfarlane is waiting for them, radiating warmth.

"I'm so pleased to meet you, at long last," she says hugging them.

This will be their new home, made possible because of an act of kindness stretching back 75 years.

It is the Scottish daughter of a German refugee helping an Afghan family, who had fled to Britain.

Burhan was an interpreter for British forces in Afghanistan

Burhan Vesal had been an interpreter for British forces in Afghanistan.

When the Taliban took over he went into hiding, scared they would murder him.

We interviewed him in August via Zoom in Kabul pleading for help from the prime minister.


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