In this essay written in 2019, Francesca Recchia recounts a group of young Afghan men on her flight being deported. She reflects on how the moral panic around refugees relies on evoking fear and how this fear facilitates apathy; reminding us to overcome this constructed indifference to stand up against fear, apathy and fascism.
Kabul, 7 January 2019 Snow in Kabul paralyses the airport: someone says it is because of ice on the runway; others think that the problem is with the radars that confuse snowflakes with other flying objects. My stopover on the way back was in Istanbul where the plane from Italy arrived late. I didn’t worry too much as I was sure the flight to Kabul would be delayed because of the weather, but when I landed I saw a blinking red “Last Call” on the airport display. I rushed to the gate thinking that I would be the last person to board. The plane was full, mostly young men in their twenties and thirties, looking lost. There was a strong smell of sweat and unwashed clothes. We had been on the runway for over half an hour when the captain announced – only in Turkish and English – that, because…
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