They’re the forgotten victims of decades of war.

Internally displaced Afghans are living in “stone age conditions,” uprooted from their homes and villages after years of civil war and escape from Taliban fighting.

Now photojournalist Guy Smallman is hoping to shed light on the situation with an exhibition of photographs.

The ex-Stroud School pupil who grew up on Northlands Road, Southampton, will be showing a selection of his work from the last eight years at city centre coffee shop Mettricks Guildhall.

The choice of images shows just how dire the situation is.

Amidst the devastation of bombed out buildings and tents for shelter, children huddle around basic heaters, play with guns and stare wide-eyed into the camera, a look of shock and mistrust in their eyes.

Young boys line up with wheelbarrows to collect cooking oil, flour and sugar for their families.

But among the stark black and white pictures of destitution there are signs of optimism - three little girls stare with wonder in a makeshift classroom while their teacher explains basic astronomy.

Guy, 45, has covered conflict in regions across the world, from Lebanon to Iraq and has been covering refugee camps in Afghanistan since 2008, working for international news outlets as well as NGOs and aid organisations.

Describing the conditions in the camps as “stone age,” he said: “The camps themselves have no amenities that anyone else would take for granted.

“They don’t have access to clean water. Sanitation is poor or non-existent so it’s very dangerous for the very young and the very old.

“Waterborne diseases like stomach infections, cholera and typhoid are common, and mice, fleas and ticks. Scabies is a big problem and Continued over page it’s highly contagious.”

And travelling to the camps in the winter means Guy sees the worst of the weather and just how difficult it is to survive. Pictures he released in 2013 showed an 18 month old girl frozen to death when her father couldn’t afford to buy fuel to keep the home warm.

They are literally “at the mercy of the elements”, he said. And on top of that Kabul is one of the most polluted cities on earth.

“It’s in a basin, and it’s high up. The wood-burning stoves and thousands of Toyota Corollas contribute. There’s industry but no curb on pollution. Every aspect is broken, including the economy.”

There are 110 refugee camps in Kabul now, and Guy has been visiting one - Chamn-e-babrak - in particular two or three times a year since 2008, getting to know the families there and building relationships with them.

When he first went in 2008 there were 180 families there. Now there are 800, many of whom have fled the Taliban, to come back to their home country in the hope of finding work.

Instead they are stuck in a refugee camp, with no prospect of finding anything.

He said: “Since 2008 the number of people living in appalling conditions due to war, poverty and land disputes has risen to 1.2 million.

"Sadly the situation is about to get a whole lot worse as neighbouring Pakistan is now carrying out its threat to expel three million Afghan refugees from its western provinces, many of whom have no homes or land to return to.”

But Guy says despite the tragedy there are elements of hope.

He said: “You get the best of humanity and the worst of it. You have doctors there working without pay to help.”

And as previously reported by the Daily Echo, Southampton residents themselves offered help in the form of a benefit gig in aid of one of the camps, which was devastated by fire.

On New Year’s Eve 2014 when he visited the Chamne Babrak camp in Kabul Guy discovered that fire had swept through the camp leaving dozens of children without shelter.

Proceeds from the Joiners’ concert raised £1500 which Guy used to provide heated shelters for the families whose homes had burnt to the ground.

He added: “People always ask what can we do to help. One of the main problems is corruption - but I know two or three grassroots organisations who are completely transparent and who will get them money straight to the people.

“One silver lining in these people’s miserable lives is that their children are getting an education and learning how to read and write after generations of illiteracy.”

“But despite having all the richest nations in the world there saying we’ve got to give them the opportunity to start again - the reality is extremely disappointing.”

The exhibition will run from January 18 until February 26.

A recent history of Afghanistan by Guy Smallman

There are many reasons why an estimated 1.2 million Afghans live as refugees within the borders of their own country. The recent history of Afghanistan is connected to all of them.

In 1979 the pro-Soviet Afghan government invited their Russian backers to send military support to quell an uprising in its rural provinces.

The resulting war between Russian forces and the western backed ‘Mujahideen’ guerrilla army lasted 10 years and resulted in a humiliating defeat for Moscow in 1989 when their troops finally withdrew.

This was followed by Afghanistan’s darkest period when rival factions of the victorious Islamist fighters plunged the country into a horrifying civil war, which was finally ended in 1996 by the Taliban uprising.

The Taliban governed as dictators denying rights to women and many other groups until 2001. Then a NATO led coalition overthrew them following the 9/11 terror attacks, which were plotted by al-Quaida operatives using Afghanistan as a base.

The Taliban continued to fight the coalition until the NATO withdrawal in 2015 and they continue to launch attacks against the Afghan government to this day.

The devastating effect that these events, combined with endemic corruption, has had a lasting effect on the economy and infrastructure of a once prosperous country. Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and most dangerous places in the world.