Interview: Open safe passages for refugees, help end wars: Afghan translator

In titanic efforts to deal with the enormous waves of refugees reaching Europe's doorstep this year, Farhad Agajan, a 26-year-old Afghan refugee who reached Greece a decade ago, plays a small supporting role in the crisis that nonetheless means the world to the hundreds of people he helps every day.

As a translator for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) on the island of Kos, Farhad has for six months lent his voice to newcomers and facilitates in every possible way their short stay in debt-laden Greece before they continue on to more prosperous central and northern European countries.

Farhad has been working since 2008 as a translator in dozens of programs run by the Greek branch of the international medical humanitarian organization.

On the Aegean Sea island, he is one of a 70-member team of doctors, nurses, psychologists, translators and other professionals providing assistance to thousands of desperate people fleeing war zones in the Middle East and Asia.

NGOs like MSF struggle to fill the huge gaps left by the state. On Kos and several other Greek islands, there is no reception system at all and people sleep on the beach with no roof over their head.

From Jan. 1, 2015 to Nov. 4, according to UNHCR estimates, 619,101 people had arrived in the Greek islands. The vast majority come from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. In September and October alone, 300 people perished in the Aegean Sea, many of them children.

So far this year, MSF has built small camps and provided medical aid to some 35,000 of the survivors across Greece. Only on Kos have they handed out 12,000 relief items.

Farhad is particularly sensitive to the refugees' odyssey because he, too, lived through a similar ordeal ten years ago as a teenager when he had left war-torn Afghanistan alone to escape death. Farhad joined MSF to offer aid he had not received as a refugee.

"I am one of them. I know what it is like. I have been through the same agony and pain," he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Farhad's harrowing trip to Greece took him three years. He had to work all his way to Athens from Pakistan and Iran through Turkey. His life was endangered numerous times. He survived gunfire by criminal gangs, heat waves, and cold fronts.

He paid traffickers 3,000 U.S. dollars to illegally enter northern Greece through the land border crossing with Turkey at Evros river.

"Like most refugees from Afghanistan or parts of Syria who drowned in the Aegean, I had never seen the sea in my life," he said.

When he arrived in Athens, Farhad slept in parks for two months until a group of Pakistanis gave him shelter, a job and a phone to speak to his mother who stayed behind. Locals also helped with food and clothing. He applied for asylum right away and was awarded refugee status last year.

Today, Farhad is giving back to people in need with a bright smile on his face. It disappears momentarily when he recalls the past and the dream he did not have the opportunity to bring to fruition: to study medicine and become a doctor like his late father.

"I could have been a different man," he said.

For the refugees he is helping and the fellow MSF members, Farhad's lack of medical degree does not matter. He is the best kind of man: one who never turns his back on people in need and makes the utmost effort to help, representing the organization's values.

"I cannot do otherwise but offer a helping hand to people who have knelt on their knees so they can stand up on their own feet again," he said.

Farhad has seen thousands down on their knees and has heard their stories. He has seen the terror and the relief in the eyes of the refugees. He has helped them relay their message, tell their stories.

"There are times when words are not enough. How can you describe such strong feelings? Refugees do not need money, bread or clothing as much as a chance to survive and rebuild their lives in safety. They want to be given an opportunity to have a better future," he said.

"They risk their lives because they have no choice. I had no choice but to leave. I would either be killed or forced to kill. Nobody wants to leave his home and family if he has a choice and put his life and the life of his child in danger," he stressed.

"If only each one of us mentally puts himself in their position for a few minutes, really listens carefully to their drama, and thinks that it could be them and their children, we would have more helping hands in Kos and wherever there are people in need," he added.

As for how to resolve the refugee crisis, Farhad's advice was: "Open safe passages for refugees so that they do not become victims of smugglers risking their lives, give them jobs to make a living, but above all, help put an end to wars." Endit