Just kids - Laura Collard

There’s five of them sleeping in a few square meters. Some of them, sometimes sleep until three in the afternoon. They spend their nights on Tik Tok or playing online war games. Others spend the night thinking. About the future, about the hearing, about the journey, about Afghanistan as that only exist in their memory .

Just kids

2023 - ongoing

They arrive one or two years later but feel 10 years older. Some are as young as 13 when they leave their country illegally to try to reach the West. They go to Brussels, register at the foreigner’s office. They wait in day centers until a spot opens in an asylum seekers’ center, minors wing. They become unaccompanied foreign minors. In their assigned center, they need to blend in. And learn French. Swap their Cali (traditional Afghan dress) for sweatpants. They eat western food three times a day at scheduled hours. They wait eagerly for a letter from the office, letting them know the results of their asylum request. They ride bikes and throw balls. They get assigned to a tutor, sometimes a year after their arrival. They go to school, work illegally in restaurants to send money to their family or buy the things that 17-year-olds do.

Saidaghul, Afghan, ten months away from his 18th birthday. Rohullah, Afghan, a year and eleven months away from his 18th birthday.

36 MENA, 33 Afghans, 2 Burundians, 1 Ivorian. MENA, French acronym for unaccompanied foreign minor, asylum seeker.

Cricket. A sport widely played in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, former British colony.

The birthdays that occurred during the month are celebrated all at once. Most young Afghans do not know the exact date of their birth. A different calendar, the foggy memory of the journey, a lie for protection. If there is any doubt, a triple bone test, of the clavicle, wrist and teeth is performed and their age administered. The test is based on the morphology of young Europeans. The test has a five year error margin. ans.

Bread is sacred. It is shared. It is served at every meal. It is used as cutlery. Sometimes it is sneakily stored in the rooms for the next meal or out of fear of starvation, reminiscent of the journey. Other times, it is a source of tension, when it is forgotten and left to rot. Bread is sacred.

Awasrane, Afghan, five months away from his 18th birthday, 2.5 years in Belgium, hates school, never wants to return to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is no longer considered at war. The State is ran by the Talibans and they are the State. Afghan asylum seekers are not considered as at risk. In Belgium, 60-70 % of minor afghan asylum seekers are rejected.