Border reinforced to block Afghans
AFGHANS who manage to make the weeks-long journey through Iran on foot to the Turkish border face a 3m-high wall, ditches or barbed wire as Turkish authorities step up efforts to block any refugee influx into the country.
The beefed up border measures in Turkey, which already hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and is a staging post for many migrants trying to reach Europe, began as the Taliban started advancing in Afghanistan and took over Kabul last week.
Authorities plan to add another 64km by the end of the year to a border wall started in 2017. Ditches, wire and security patrols around the clock will cover the rest of the 560km frontier.
“We want to show the whole world that our borders are unpassable,” said Mehmet Emin Bilmez, governor of the eastern border province of Van. Our biggest hope is that there is no migrant wave from Afghanistan.”
Turkey’s neighbour, Greece, has just completed a 40km fence and surveillance system to keep out migrants who still manage to enter Turkey and try to reach the EU.
Authorities say there are 182 000 registered Afghan migrants in Turkey and an estimated 120 000 unregistered ones. 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 Turkish side of the mountainous border with Iran is lined by bases and watchtowers. Patrol cars monitor around the clock for movement on the Iranian side, from where migrants, smugglers and Kurdish militants frequently try to cross into Turkey.
Migrants who are seen getting through at the border are returned to the Iranian side, though most return and try again, security forces say. Migrants who make it through are hidden by smugglers, waiting to be moved to western Turkey.
Those captured are taken for health and security checks at a processing centre. After processing, migrants are taken to a repatriation centre, where they can spend up to 12 months before being sent back to their home country.
Those repatriations have been halted for Afghans now, leaving around 7 500 Afghans in limbo in various repatriation centres.