Millions of desperate Afghans flee Taliban country ruled by war | 60 Minutes Australia

some have money most are desperately poor but all are determined to get out at any price it's the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world today nearly a quarter of Afghanistan perhaps five million people have fled and like the afghani asylum seekers on board the Tampa still, more are on their way I've just returned from this country ruined by war and ruled by the hardline Islamic Taliban as a nation it's a basket case it's why the people smugglers are so hard to beat the market for their services is seemingly endless waves of people all desperate to find refuge in places like Australia just inside Pakistan on the afghani border heart-wrenching evidence of what's being called the world's worst humanitarian disaster this is jalazai refugee camp a squalid tent city for 50 000 men women and children

the scale of this human tragedy is immense five million afghans have fled their country another million have fled their homes but remain in Afghanistan but all are in a desperate situation they are unwanted by bordering countries like Pakistan and largely forgotten by the rest of the world [Music] those with any money will try and buy an illegal passage to countries like Australia 

 they have fled a country ruined by war and ruled by religion this is Afghanistan Taliban style a place where your every move is watched every movement control please keep please please Afghanistan has never been an easy place to report from 22 years of war and now the strictest Islamic government in the world makes getting the news out very difficult for example before I came here i was given a set of conditions break any of them

i was told and i'd be punished they included not interviewing women not interviewing anyone in their house and not filming any living creature but it seems that those who make the rules are prepared to break them in the interest of getting their message across for the last 20 years especially the new generation the youngest they have not seen anything except warfighting killing looting and all these things mullah sharable stanixar is a senior minister in the Taliban government our main aim was to bring peace in Afghanistan all these problems which is here in Afghanistan right now it is because of the Russians we had a good tradition with our neighbours in the whole region in all the six we were very rich we were very strong in everything and economically but all these things have been destroyed by the Russians 

Russian invasion Russian withdrawal then civil war not a part of Kabul nor a corner of the country appears untouched at its worst Afghanistan was not a nation-state it was a state of anarchy it was really basically lawlessness and nobody really felt secure Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Ghul has reported from Afghanistan for the last 15 years before the Taliban particularly in a city like Kabul it was free for all the city itself had been divided into several zones and being manned by different commanders you really had to negotiate your passage from one sector or zone to the other so it was really basically lawlessness right now the peace which is established in Afghanistan is a great thing order has been restored to Afghanistan but its Taliban order Islamic justice here is swift public and brutal

i do not say that all the human rights are okay in all right in Afghanistan maybe there are differences there are some problems and all these things anywhere when there is fighting you will see there is a violation of human rights it's not just what the Taliban are doing to their people it's what they've done to their history that's causing such despair the trip to the famed buddhas of Bamiyan is difficult and dangerous with Taliban approval we went to see their handiwork

I'd been here before five years ago one of the last foreigners to see these magnificent structures and then came to the Taliban 200 300 people took part and thus these two Buddhas were destroyed

now this is all that's left of the great Bamiyan buddhas it was decided earlier this year they had to go it took three weeks to destroy them so after 1700 years all that's left of the buddhas is rubble the ferocity launched at the statues disgusted the world these statues are not worth worshipping because they are statues they are just made of rocks or claves or whatever you call it mat so the only god who has created the whole world he should be worshipped 

we know the whole problem with us is only our religion because we have established an Islamic government now nobody is tolerating Islamic government in the world

no other country in the world has a brand of Islam as severe as the Taliban a woman should be covered she is not supposed to come out of her house or wherever she is living without proper dresses dress which is permitted for that to those people in the west who would say the Taliban are fanatics what would you say it's a good question there are many articles and many there's fresh news coming every day against Taliban and the western media in newspapers that now nobody can believe whatever you say you know that what happens in Afghanistan

if it is true that the Taliban are not so much mad but misunderstood mullers it's also true that the country they run is a basket case it is a virtual scrap heap the economy has collapsed and its infrastructure is shattered drought has replaced war three years without rain has sucked the life out of Afghanistan nearly a quarter of its population are now refugees at the border crossing into Pakistan a scene of chaos Afghanistan is in exodus 

the situation for people inside Afghanistan is extremely difficult and it drives these people to flee their country by the thousands, uh last year alone nearly four hundred thousand people fled mainly to Iran and Pakistan at the jalazai refugee camp mark Kessler heads the u.n relief effort has the world turned a blind eye the world has forgotten about the Afghan refugees more has to be done for these millions of forgotten refugees in countries like Pakistan and Iran in the filth and dirt they seek medical attention sick children and their desperate parents we've had scores of children die per month from the heat here as well of course as dysentery and there are problems because there's a lack of food

malnourished kids are weighed but there's not much that can be done there's not enough food and little water those with money search out the people smugglers an attempt to buy their passage to Australia for those people who get enough money to go they try to go further afield places like Australia Germany America because the situation in these front line countries is already so inhospitable the squalor here makes it understandable why many will risk their lives to make the dangerous journey to Australia there has to be much more burden-sharing if countries around the world are not willing to allow afghans to come into their territory they need to do much more for Pakistan where we're only spending some 18 million dollars which is just peanuts compared to what other countries spend trying to keep people out 

and it's not going to get any better for Afghanistan international sanctions punishing it for hiding terrorist Osama bin laden have crippled the economy there's not even the illegal wealth from the poppy crop a year ago these fields helped produce 75 of the world's heroin now by Taliban order there is nothing but baked earth yet say the Taliban they've received no recognition from the west we have stopped it we have shown to the world that we have the power

I think it is the moral duty of the world that they should not leave the people of Afghanistan alone instead of that they should improve the water relegation system for the people they should improve the road they should establish and build schools for the people they should establish universities they should give improved seats to the people fertilizer tractors in all these things if they are not giving it so the people are poor 

it is a tragedy the Taliban have turned their back on the world and the world has imposed sanctions on them and all the while in camps like these desperate refugees seeking a way out countries hosting millions of Afghan refugees like Pakistan and Iran are becoming increasingly xenophobic and uh and concerned about these millions of people and those people with those refugees with money then try to go even further afield to places where they end up in detention and getting the welcome mat pulled out from under them,

hello I'm Liz hayes thanks for watching 60 minutes Australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on nine now dot com dot in and the nine now app