Photos: For Afghan actor turned refugee, survival is the toughest role

Talibshah Hosini played some tough roles as an actor in Afghanistan before he fled. None was as hard as his real-life fight for survival in a refugee camp with his family on the Greek island of Lesbos. The 35-year-old from Faryab province in Afghanistan left a career in theatre and film in his home country and now spends his days trying to keep his family safe in a makeshift shack made of pieces of wood and metal. The family's asylum request is one of tens of thousands backed up in Greece. In Moria camp, more than 19,000 live in a space built for 3,000.

Updated on: Mar 02, 2020 7:55 PM IST

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Talibshah Hosini, 35, helps his daughter Farima, 9, with her English vocabulary homework as his two other daughters Parisa, 6, and Marjan, 3, draw pictures inside their temporary shelter at a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants next to the Moria camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece. Hosini played some tough roles as an actor in Afghanistan before he fled. None was as hard as his real-life fight for survival in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Hosini shows a picture to Reuters, of himself acting in an Afghan film. The 35-year-old from Faryab province in Afghanistan left a career in theatre and film in his home country and now spends his days trying to keep his family safe in a makeshift shack made of pieces of wood and metal. “In the 18 years since I became part of the cinema, I have played many tough roles, but this role is the most difficult one,” he said. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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The Hosini family stand outside a temporary shelter. Forced to flee after receiving threats for staging satires at his theatre company that focused on the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, his journey with his wife and three daughters took them to Iran, then to Turkey and eventually Greece. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Drawings are stuck up inside a temporary shelter. Hosini built a shelter in an olive grove next to the official Moria camp. The grove itself has become a tent city after Moria overflowed. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Hosini prays inside a temporary shelter. “We have seen things that should not be spoken of. I myself can’t sleep at night, just in case someone walks into the tent with a knife and stabs me, god forbid, (or) does something awful to my wife,” Hosini said. “I don’t trust anyone, not even our neighbours, because they change all the time.” (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Hosini and his wife Yasamin wake up before dawn and enter Moria, taking turns to wait in line for three hours to receive meals. The food is not enough for the family of five, so they cook for themselves on a stove made from an empty can filled with charcoal and wood. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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The Hosini family eat lunch inside a temporary shelter. The couple will not let their daughters venture out of the shelter alone, fearing they will be assaulted or kidnapped. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Hosini practices kung fu at a makeshift camp. His family’s asylum interview is not for another year-and-a-half. Tears well up in his eyes when he is asked what he will do if the application is rejected. “It is hard to say, very hard to say because if our case isn’t accepted here and we have to go back to Afghanistan, what will I do in Afghanistan? If we go back my children’s futures are ruined,” he said through tears. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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The family’s asylum request is one of tens of thousands backed up in Greece. In Moria camp, more than 19,000 live in a space built for 3,000. There have been attempted suicides, fights that end in injuries and self-harming. Deaths from attacks and accidents have also occurred. The camps are overflowing with garbage and the portable toilets are filthy. (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)

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Yasamin Hosini, 25, sits inside a temporary shelter. His wife Yasamin said she dreamt of a normal life. When asked what she wished for most, she replied: “For calm. Just a quiet area where we can feel human too. We don’t have any peace, not at night, or in the day. Just that.” (Alkis Konstantinidis / REUTERS)