Behind the wheel: Ahmad Shinwari has been driving a taxi in Dublin since January 2020. Photo: Gerry Mooney
Behind the wheel: Ahmad Shinwari has been driving a taxi in Dublin since January 2020. Photo: Gerry Mooney
I got my refugee status in June 2016 and worked in a pizza shop in Waterford city. It was a nice place to work.
I liked living there, it was so relaxed and quiet. After I came to Ireland from Afghanistan, for three years I had no papers so I could not work and I prefer to work.
When I got my refugee status I applied for my driver’s licence. I felt it would be hard to pass the theory test but I passed it first time in 2016.
This made me feel confident I could drive. The driving instructor was a very good man. After 12 lessons I could do it.
In 2018 I bought a little car and thought I could do a takeaway job. The third time I did the driving test I passed.
There were many people in Waterford and Dublin I knew and someone advised me to go to Dublin to do a taxi course.
I met an Afghan taxi driver and asked how he had passed. He told me about a man who taught the Dublin map on a one-month course.
I registered and the course was six days a week; it was in a classroom where we were shown all the Dublin maps and then we drove around.
I was confused sometimes and I failed the first test but only by a few percentage points. You need 85pc to pass and I got 80pc so I knew I could do it. The second time I passed and applied for my taxi licence.
It’s not a bad job. I like it. If you don’t feel good you go home and relax. If I am tired I can take a break. Nobody is going to push me.
Since the pandemic, people usually book online and I take street passengers too. I listen to 98fm all the time. Customers usually want to chat and I am happy with that. Normally I have very good customers, but sometimes there can be trouble.
I started driving my taxi in January 2020 and the first two months were very good. I was meeting different people. When Covid happened I was home for six months and then I decided I couldn’t stay at home, I must work. It was very quiet and relaxing during Covid time, but it is starting to get busy again.
I start work on the weekends at 5pm. I go home for a two-hour break and I go back at 10pm and work until 12.30am or sometimes 2am if it’s busy. I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday and some weekdays in the daytime.
Sometimes it is dangerous as people are drunk and you never know what they will do. One time someone attacked me to take my money. They cracked my windshield but the gardaí caught him.
The second time there were five people in my car, it was a seven seater and when I tried to open the back door, one of the fellas jumped into my seat and reversed and crashed into two more cars behind.
I was so upset and so sad for that. I asked him ‘please, don’t drive the car’. He was a young lad just messing. One day in December 2020 I had a job to take someone to Stoneybatter and I don’t know why but he suddenly got so angry with me and asked me to stop the car. He tried to fight me and to open my door, but I drove away. It is a good job but sometimes you get bad people. Everywhere in the world you have good and bad people.
I was 16 when I left Afghanistan. My father was in a group that was part of the Taliban. He was a scholar of Islam and he took my brother to join. He was killed in 2013 and my dad was asked to take me to join instead but when I saw the guns I explained to my mum how dangerous it was. My mum and uncles decided I needed to leave Afghanistan and talked with the agent to take me to the safest place.
I came down through Iran with the agent and travelled to the Turkish border where we had to wait for 20 days. There were 10 or 15 of us. When we got inside Bulgaria they told us to keep walking straight back to the border. The police stopped us and took us to a camp.
I spent two months in a big camp in Sofia and we could only leave our rooms for one hour a day. We had food two times a day. There were five or six people in the room who were from Iran and Syria. Their language was Arabic but there was one fella who also spoke my language, Pashto, so he translated.
It was a prison, there were many police. I never thought I would get out, I felt this was my place forever but after two months I was sent to another camp. An agent then took us to Serbia, then Hungary and then the same story – you keep walking until the police catch you and take you to the camp.
One of the fellas there contacted an agent. I think the route we took was to Italy, then France and from there to England and then Ireland in a big truck. I was given bananas and water and told when the boat stopped to get out and ask someone for the refugee office. There was another fella with me and he knew what to do. The truck man was shouting at us but he told me we did not need to talk to him. We came to the city mosque and asked for help.
There was one family in Dublin who were from my village. When I got to France my mother told me about them.
I told the social officer I wanted to meet with them. A few days later they found the family and we met. I still visit them today.
When we got off the boat I went to Dublin and I stayed for two years. I was transferred to Galway but I preferred Waterford. I know many people now.
I went to school in Afghanistan but I’ve never been to college. It was difficult when I got here to understand the language, we had learned it in school but it was so different. I found it hard to deal with things like shopping. In 2014 and 2015 I took English classes in Dublin. I can’t write it well but I think I can talk OK.
When I’m not working I like walking and I take our nine-month-old son Hamid out around our area in Milltown. I go to the shops to get special food, I do a lot of the cooking.
My wife is from Afghanistan. My family knows her family very well. Our culture is different. You do not date a girl, you decide to get married. I applied for her to come and she was granted her visa in January 2020. We have a totally different life here.
The good thing is that it is very peaceful and we are happy, but I got very bad news from Afghanistan.
My brother who came after me joined the Taliban. He was injured by a gun and died in May.
I now have one brother left. I applied for my family to come here. The Americans are going to leave soon and my mother is going mental, she is so worried about my brother who lives with her.
My wife is a great cook and I am also a good cook. I’m watching YouTube videos to see how I can make the food from back home.
I would really love to have a business of my own.
I am not ready yet, but I plan to open a nice grocery shop or a restaurant or a takeaway to keep myself busy.