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Accomplishing the twelve labours of Hercules, Afghan refugees get to Europe. They risk their lives, leaving everything and everyone they love behind. All this time, knowing that they might forever be branded as unwanted refugees and immigrants and might never recover from the nostalgia for \u201chome\u201d. For a better life.<\/p>\n
According to Reuters<\/a>, Afghans are widely viewed as unwanted migrants that form the sixth largest group of asylum seekers in Europe\u2019s economic powerhouse in the first 10 months of this year. Germany\u2019s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere had previously said that Afghan should \u201cstay in their country\u201d.<\/p>\n On Wednesday speaking a joint conference with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Berlin, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened that Afghans who arrive in Germany in pursuit of better financial circumstances will be deported back home, “But where refugees come hoping for a better life – and I know that this hope is big for many – that is no reason to get asylum status or residency status here”. She further stated that \u201cprotected zones\u201d should be created within Afghanistan, so that people living in unsafe areas move to protected and safe regions of their own country, instead of heading to Europe.<\/p>\n However, what caused a major backlash in the Afghan social media was the way the Afghan president responded. Concurring with Merkel that false information regarding immigration to Germany has been circulating which should be cleared; Ghani said, \u201cWe need to\u2026make sure that everybody understands the streets are not paved with gold\u201d.<\/p>\n With the exodus of Afghans, Afghan leaders have been concerned about the \u201cbrain drain\u201d- the departure of some of the best minds of its young generation. Ghani\u2019s government has launched a slick social-media campaign to dissuade Afghans from migrating to Europe urging the people that \u201cour dignity, our respect is in Afghanistan\u201d. \u201cDon\u2019t go. Stay with me. There might be no return,\u201d or \u201cAfghanistan needs you!\u201d are messages Kabul is sending to its citizens who contemplate leaving.<\/p>\n