About 200 uprooted young Afghans arrived in Doha aboard flights from Kabul in recent weeks and are being hosted at a reception centre, where they grapple with the trauma of their ordeals.
A group of unaccompanied Afghan children play football in Doha where a charity is caring for them until they can find their relatives The daily life of unaccompanied Afghan refugee children in Qatar is punctuated by recurring questions, "where are we going?" and "can I have some chips".
"It's very hard to imagine the trauma that they've been through," said an aid worker based in the Middle East who declined to be named. Many fled, including the youngsters, some of whom cannot recall the circumstances of their abrupt departure from their homeland, while others give contradictory accounts of how they came to be in Qatar.
As far as possible they were also grouped according to the friendships and bonds forged during their respective journeys."They can get attached to other children very quickly. They feel things stronger than anyone," Fatima-Zahra Bakkari, a Moroccan in charge of international cooperation for Qatar Charity.When the older child learnt that they were soon to move on, he offered to move out of the younger child's bedroom so they could prepare for possibly never seeing one another again.
"It is vital that they are quickly identified and kept safe during family tracing and reunification processes.""Then comes the delicate part," said the humanitarian official who requested anonymity.
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