You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
Representative image: Many Afghans have fled the country and are now refugees in neighboring countries
With the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, thousands have fled the country. This is adding to the 2.2 million country Afghan refugees who were already in other parts of the region. Open Doors’ contacts in Central Asia explain how recent events have affected their countries, and how we can be praying for the situation in the region.
“The situation in Afghanistan causes a lot of worries in our country. The majority of people are afraid, but there are also those who want radical Islam to be the ruling ideology in our country. There is no official information, that’s why there are lots of rumors. They say that the president secretly organised conversations with the Taliban, and even sent some humanitarian support in spite of the situation with food in our own country.
“We organized a ‘prayer chain’ for this situation in Afghanistan, for people from this country, for the situation in our country too, and for God’s protection.”
“Unfortunately, the situation near the border with Afghanistan is getting worse. The number of people crossing illegally into our country from Afghanistan is huge. Some have been caught by the border guards and sent back, some hide.
“As Christians, we don’t reject refugee people, but accept and serve them”HAMAD, OPEN DOORS CONTACT
“As Christians, I think we should be open to accept suffering people, but what if radicals come among them? We need wisdom and leading from God in this. Of course, as Christians we don’t reject refugee people, but accept and serve them.
“Moreover, the economic situation in our country is very bad, many people are extremely poor and often starving. The situation in neighboring Afghanistan makes this worse.
“These pictures show a little of the economic reality in our country and how many ordinary people over here struggle to survive.”
“Recently we were near the border with Afghanistan as part of a missionary and aid delivery trip, and we saw the refugee camp there, but we were not let in by the security services. We could only meet a few refugee people outside.
“My friend lives in that part of the country, he is a pastor. He shares that every day people from Afghanistan swim across the river and hide in fields and reeds. The border guards search for such people in that area, find them and send back to Afghanistan.
“My biggest desire is to save my wife and children from Taliban hands and return here”SAMAD*, A AFGHANISTAN MAN
“We were able to meet several Afghanistan people there and hear their stories. One of them is the story of Samad, a Afghanistan man who has to leave our country soon because his visa will expire in several weeks.
“Samad couldn’t hold back tears when he told us about his family and how hard the situation was in Afghanistan. He shared that his biggest desire is to ‘save his wife and children from Taliban hands and return here with them to us’. We supported him as we could, most of all with prayers, and really trust God can save him and his family. We hope to meet him again. Please, join us in prayers for Samad, his wife, his children.
“We also supported other families in this area (Christian and non-Christian) with some food packs and clean water as there has been almost no clean water there for around three years. The rivers are drying up and are heavily polluted so people take water from dirty ditches and residual rivers.”
“The situation in neighboring country Afghanistan is a reason for growing concern for our people. We know that officially our government just lets limited numbers of people into a special refugee camp, but we also can see the growing number of refugees in cities. As a church leader and missionary, I travel a lot and can really see this.
“Our Christian answer to such sad changes is prayer”AMMIN, OPEN DOORS CONTACT
“There are rumors that the Taliban want to increase their influence to all neighboring Central Asian countries, so it is possible that they will send their agents among refugees to carry out their activities. It is so sad that the high level of corruption in our country is the reason why such terrible plans of the Taliban could become possible.
“Of course, we know God is over this situation and our Christian answer to such sad changes is prayer. We make this topic one of the main ones in our church and home meetings. Please, pray with us for this situation.”
*Name changed for security reasons
PLEASE PRAY
Join the response for persecuted believers in crisis.
