Turkey strengthens border to block any wave of Afghan migrants

VAN, Turkey, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Afghans who manage to make the week-long trek across Iran on foot to the Turkish border face a three-meter-high wall, ditches or wire while the Turkish authorities are stepping up efforts to block any refugee influx into the country.

Reinforced border measures in Turkey, which already hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and is a staging ground for many migrants trying to reach Europe, began when the Taliban began advancing on Afghanistan and left. seize Kabul last week.

Authorities plan to add another 64 km by the end of the year to a border wall that began in 2017. Dumps, cables and security patrols throughout the day will cover the rest of the 560 km border.

“We want to show everyone that our borders are unbeatable,” Mehmet Emin Bilmez, governor of Van’s eastern border province, told Reuters over the weekend. “Our greatest hope is that there will not be a wave of migrants from Afghanistan.”

Turkey is not the only country putting up barriers: its neighbor Greece has just completed a 40km fence and surveillance system to prevent immigrants who still manage to enter Turkey and try to reach the European Union. Read more

Authorities say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in Turkey and an estimated 120,000 unregistered. President Tayyip Erdogan urged European countries to take responsibility for any new influx, warning that Turkey had no intention of becoming “Europe’s migrant storage unit.”

The number of Afghan illegal immigrants detained in Turkey this year is less than a fifth of those detained in 2019, and officials say they have yet to see signs of a significant increase since last week’s Taliban victory, though long distances are refugees. it could take weeks to arrive.

The Turkish side of the mountain border with Iran is surrounded by bases and watchtowers. Patrol cars monitor movements on the Iranian side 24 hours a day, from where Kurdish migrants, smugglers and militants often try to cross into Turkey.

Immigrants seen crossing the border are returned to the Iranian side, although most return and try again, according to security forces.

“No matter how many high-level measures you take, there may be those who evade them from time to time,” Bilmez said.

“LET’S STAY”

Roads coming out of the border are full of checkpoints. Migrants who pass through are hidden by smugglers in houses (often dirty and shattered buildings underground or in deep dry river beds) waiting to be moved to western Turkey.

On Saturday, police captured 25 immigrants, mostly Afghans, behind a dilapidated building in the Van Hacibekir neighborhood.

“We thought we would have facilities here, we would win to support our parents. There, there are Taliban who are killing us,” said Zaynullah, 20, one of the detainees. He said he arrived in Turkey two days earlier after traveling on foot for 80 days.

Captured people are taken to health and safety control at a processing center. There, Seyyed Fahim Mousavi, a 26-year-old man, said he fled his home in Kabul a month ago, before the Taliban came, fearing he would be killed because he had worked as a driver for the Americans and Turks.

His wife, Morsal, 22, said they made the trip to Iran, mostly on foot, to escape the Taliban.

“They harm women. After raping them, they kill them. They behead men,” he said, holding his two children, ages two and five. “We don’t want to go back. Let us stay here.”

After processing, migrants are transferred to a repatriation center, where they can spend up to 12 months before being returned to their country of origin. These repatriations have now stopped for Afghans, leaving some 7,500 Afghans in limbo at various repatriation centers.

Ramazan Secilmis, deputy director of the migration directorate, said his organization was working to identify those in need of Taliban protection to relocate them to third countries.

“Those who need protection must be separated from those who come to our country for economic reasons. We cannot automatically deport anyone just because they have Afghan nationality,” he said.

Ali Kucukgocmen Reports; Edited by Dominic Evans and Hugh Lawson

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