How Haya Escaped to Pakistan

What happens after the men with guns who run your country take aim at you? 

Last year reporter Molly Thomas traveled to Pakistan for Canadaland to file a series of reports on one of the world's biggest refugee crises. There are currently somewhere between 1.5 and 3 million Afghans who have fled the Taliban and who are now stuck in limbo in Pakistan. Many have been trying to get to Canada.

Molly's series was called Dear Taliban and one of her stories featured a young woman who called herself Haya.

Haya and her family fled from Kabul to Pakistan where they found themselves stranded and that's where her story ended for us. That was until we heard that Haya had finally made it out and reached Canada

Journalists rarely get this kind of opportunity to follow up on a story that happened halfway around the world. To come back to someone who was stuck with countless other refugees in limbo. To be able to actually answer the question: what happened next? But today we can do that because Haya is here in our studio.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor & Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Featured Guest: Hinna Asefi Wardak

Fact checking by Julian Abraham

Additional music by Audio Network

More information:

• Dear Taliban, a three-part series — CANADALAND
• UNHCR urges Pakistan to stop forced returns of Afghan refugees — United Nations
• Pakistan: 1.4 million Afghan refugees at risk of deportation — Amnesty International

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