AFGHANISTAN Migrants: in 2022 Ankara expelled more than 68,000 Afghans

The other side of the “eastern route” on which the Crotone shipwreck once again focused attention. In the total of 120,000 deportees there are also 12,000 Pakistanis. The situation worsened after the Taliban recapture in August 2021. Despite continued funding from the European Union, Turkey does not review the asylum claims of refugees arriving from Afghanistan via Iran.

Milan () – During 2022, Turkey expelled 68,290 Afghans and more than 12,511 Pakistanis, along with migrants from other countries whose presence on Turkish territory is considered illegal, a total of 120,000 deportees. This is indicated by the data of the General Directorate of Migration of Turkey for last year, after the umpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean (with more than 60 migrants dead, including at least 12 children, whose bodies were recovered near Crotone, in southern Italy) has turned attention back to what is commonly known as the eastern route. This forks from Turkey into the Balkan route (which is traveled on foot through Eastern Europe) and the Eastern Mediterranean route, which is instead by sea.

After about twenty Pakistani citizens also died in the latest shipwreck, the Islamabad government ordered an investigation against the trafficking networks operating in the country. The Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Sajid Hussain Turi, declared that “strong action is necessary against criminal human trafficking networks around the world” after “more than 600,000 people” were “sent to work abroad.” since April 2022. People are asked not to fall victim to traffickers,” the minister added.

Turkey welcomes 3.9 million refugees, the highest number in the world and of which the majority (3.7 million) are Syrians who fled the war that began in 2011. Another 322,000 refugees registered by international organizations come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia.

According to a 2016 deal With some European leaders, Turkey promised to take care of the refugees in the country with EU funds. Between 2016 and 2019, the EU allocated to Ankara, through two different mechanisms, more than 8 billion euros in humanitarian aid in order to prevent refugees from crossing the borders into Europe. In addition, the almost 960 million euros deposited between 2020 and 2023 are added.

However, the conditions of the refugees in Turkey after all these years are still dramatic: in early january, the General Directorate of Migration announced that it would deport another 5,000 Afghan migrants, according to the expulsions carried out in 2022. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 98% of the refugees in Turkey live outside the refugee camps , in difficult and often precarious circumstances, and many families have exhausted their financial resources. Many feel they have no choice but to resort to coping mechanisms such as child labor, begging on the street, or marrying off their underage daughters. Afghans are also victims of kidnapping for ransom and a source of reported that “many people” along the border between Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey died in a “desperate attempt” to start a new life away from the Taliban.

Various humanitarian organizations also denounced the conditions of Afghan refugees in Turkey: according to a Human Rights Watch report last year, Ankara systematically expels and rejects Afghan refugees with little or no consideration for their requests for international protection. The situation has worsened since the Taliban recapture of the country in August 2021: as is well known, in addition to the prohibitions and restrictions imposed on women, the humanitarian situation is tragic, with more than 90% of the population below the threshold. of poverty. Attacks by the local branch of the Islamic State (Is-K), enforced disappearances of former government officials and revenge killings by the Taliban have also increased.

In October last year, the Migration Management Presidency of the Turkish Interior Ministry claimed to have prevented 238,448 “irregular migrants” from entering the country in 2022.