Time.news – Turkey has stopped several hundred Afghans fleeing the advance of the Taliban, who left a burning country with the dream of reaching Europe. More than 200 Afghans were intercepted in a single operation of the Coast Guardwhile they were aboard a makeshift boat in theAegean.
Another 219 Afghans (plus another 22 migrants) were stopped aboard various rubber boats in the province of Canakkale, in the northern Aegean; two alleged traffickers were arrested in the operation, fishermen accused of having asked for $ 5,000 from each to make the crossing.
About a thousand were stopped at Istanbul, while many try to cross the eastern border of Turkey or are desperately waiting for a visa and the applications at the western chancelleries of Kabul are increasing every day.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under pressure from the opposition and public opinion: the hashtag ‘we don’t want refugees anymore’ is a huge hit on social media. Turkey has in fact become the country in the world with the most refugees, 4 million they are the Syrians and the Afghans already constitute the second largest group, over 200,000 before these days. According to estimates by non-governmental organizations, 300,000 have fled their homes since the Taliban regained control of rural areas, while about 7 million Afghans live in Pakistan and Iran, both countries that do not accept other refugees.
Turkey is the gateway to Europe for Afghans fleeing through Iran, who undergo a hard trek through the mountains, bordering the provinces of Van and Igdir. According to the prefecture of Van, 27,000 migrants have been detained for illegally crossing the border with Iran since January, 1,500 in the last week.
Turkey signed an agreement with the EU in 2016 to block migratory flows and manage Syrians inside the country in exchange for 6 billion dollars, but now the problem is recurring with the Afghans.
Ankara is building a wall of about 300 kilometers on the border with Iran to prevent new flows and meanwhile has reacted harshly to Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, who had called Turkey “a more appropriate place for migrants from Germany or Austria”. Turkey “will not be the refugee camp of Europe ‘”, replied the foreign ministry.
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