As the EU focuses on curbing migration flows, one Afghan refugee in Belgium calls for more integration
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Ajmal Maarij, 27, dreamt of becoming a politician in his homeland of Afghanistan, but the conflict put an end to all that. Now he's a refugee in Belgium, working at a Red Cross asylum seeker centre.
As the EU cracks down on migration flows, he watches the political decisions with a close eye.
"It hurts when I see that Europeans I trying to push back migrants to their own countries where they do not feel secure, where they do not have a life," he told Euronews.
"History shows that all humans are crossing, we do not have exact borders, we are just moving around the world. So it is proven that it is just political games that are creating blocks for the refugees, but somehow they will come."
Germany recently deported almost 70 Afghan nationals, whose asylum requests were rejected.
Ajmal has studies under his belt, and he wants to see some alternative thinking - focusing more on integration and mentoring.
Maarij said: "It is good to create a proper pathway for them, to integrate them in your own state, it does not matter which European states they will be coming to.
"They should have a representative of each community (of refugees) and those representatives should be invited by the media, and to seminars and conferences, to talk and put back some awareness to the refugees. And that will help the refugees too follow them, to follow their footsteps, to ask for guidance."