Turkey reinforces border to block Afghans fleeing Taliban
From www.brisbanetimes.com.au
2021-08-24 03:19:16
Excerpt:
Migrants who are spotted getting through at the border are returned to the Iranian side, though 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.
Roads leading from the border are lined with checkpoints. Migrants who make it through are hidden by smugglers in houses – often dirty, ramshackle buildings underground or in deep dried riverbeds –waiting to be moved to western Turkey.
Afghan migrants sit in the countryside in Tatvan, in Bitlis Province, eastern Turkey, last week.Credit:AP
On Saturday police captured 25 migrants, mostly Afghans, behind a dilapidated building in Van’s Hacibekir neighbourhood.
“We thought we will have facilities here, we will earn to support our parents. There, there are Taliban to kill us,” said 20-year-old Zaynullah, one of those detained. He said he arrived in Turkey two days earlier after travelling on foot for 80…
