Interview with Sami

by Christobelle Grierson-Ryrie

Samiullah (Sami) Kharodae was born in the northern province of Bahglan in Afghanistan. He

speaks five languages in total: Pashtu, Dare, Urbu, English and French. Sami arrived in Paris on the 17 th November 2023 and gained his refugee status in June 2024. Sami is 19 years old and is currently living in Sarcelles, north of Paris. He has managed to attain level B1 in French in only eight months of studies. He hopes to study a four-year degree in information technology (IT) at university, commencing September 2025, by which point he will have surpassed the required B2 level French. He has a backup plan to pursue an electrician formation if that doesn’t work out. 

Sami and his family relocated to Pakistan when Sami was 5 years old due to the limited education and working opportunities in Afghanistan at the time, but they visited Afghanistan twice on holiday. The second time they visited happened to be in August 2022, the month that Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. They stayed indoors for a week, eating what supplies they had, and after two weeks managed to gather documents necessary to justify their crossing the border from Afghanistan back to Pakistan. From there they planned their departure to Europe. Fortunately Sami, along with his parents and four younger siblings (two brothers and two sisters), managed to get visa’s before flying to Paris, so the process of gaining refugee status was smoother and more efficient. He also had other family members living in France already. Sami and his family are currently living across two hotel rooms in Sarcelles. They look forward to hopefully being assigned a house where they can live together, but that will take between one or two years. Sami’s father is hoping to join Sami in an electrician formation next year. Sami and his family are settling into life in France well and are very happy to be here.