Over 240,000+ Afghan refugees deported from Turkey (as well as Iran and Pakistan)

[PakistaniandProud]

Over 240,000 Afghan refugees deported from Iran and Turkey

Neither Tehran nor Ankara recognise the Taliban government - but that hasn't stopped them from turning away Afghans fleeing its rule

www.middleeasteye.net

Neither Tehran nor Ankara recognise the Taliban government - but that hasn't stopped them from turning away Afghans fleeing its rule.

Turkey has been building a wall on its eastern border with Iran since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan (Reuters)

By Ali M Latifi in Kabul
Published date: 15 November 2022 10:56 UTC | Last update: 1 month 4 days ago

More than 240,000 Afghan refugees have been deported from Iran and Turkey since the start of the year, according to Turkish and Afghan officials.

Authorities in Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Nimroz, which shares borders with both Iran and Pakistan, told local media that nearly 190,000 Afghans have been deported by Tehran in the last six months alone.

Afghans deported from Iran are sent by road back to either Nimroz, a largely desert province that has become one of the nation’s most prominent smuggling hubs, or Herat, a commercial and cultural centre.

Though Turkish police have been accused of trying to push Afghans back towards the Iranian border, most of their deportations take place via commercial and charter flights on private and government-run Afghan airlines.

According to the Turkish interior ministry’s migration management office, at least 92,583 undocumented Afghans have entered the country as of last month

Of those, 57,174 were sent back to Taliban-run Afghanistan on both chartered and scheduled flights. The vast majority - 41,185 - were sent back on 217 chartered flights. Turkish officials say that is an increase of 212 percent from the year prior.

Observers and rights workers note that both Tehran and Ankara, along with Islamabad, continue to deport Afghans back to a country facing a mounting humanitarian crisis, despite the fact that none of them recognise the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate as the official government of Afghanistan.

However, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan are among three of the nations that have continued to maintain ties and trade with Taliban-run Afghanistan. One Afghan aid worker, who travels between Kabul and Istanbul several times a year, said the deportations may be one reason why Ankara maintains a diplomatic presence in Kabul.

“Looking at these statistics, it makes sense why the Turks are so adamant about their continued presence in Afghanistan,” said the aid worker, who asked not to be named given her ties to both countries.

Refugee rights workers inside Turkey agree.

Ali Hekmat, who has been aiding Afghan refugees in Turkey for more than a decade, says Ankara fails to recognise the danger it is putting Afghans in when sending them back to a Taliban-run state.

“Many of the Afghans who come to Turkey are former soldiers or officials from the former government, and returning them to Afghanistan is a huge risk both in terms of their human rights and personal security,” Hekmat told Middle East Eye.

Shortly after returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban promised a general amnesty for all former officials and security forces of the western-backed Islamic Republic.

However, since then, everyone from The New York Times to The Washington Post to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists have documented hundreds of allegations of abuses against Afghan journalists, former security forces, female protesters and ethnic minorities by Taliban forces across the country.

Hekmat says the deportations are not only done by plane. He says he has heard repeated reports of Afghans being driven back from the borderlands of eastern Turkey.

What disturbs Hekmat the most is that the Turkish authorities do not hide the fact that they are deporting Afghans back to a Taliban-run Afghanistan that is facing an economic downturn and a humanitarian crisis, and how systematic it all is.

“The Turkish government itself issues weekly and monthly reports saying they pushed refugees back across the border. It’s very organised and systematic. They get their fingerprints taken, their biometric data is stored and then they’re sent right back across the border,” he said.

Hekmat and other sources speaking to MEE said once Afghans are pushed back from the Turkish border, they are then likely to be deported from Iran, showing that the practices of Ankara and Tehran feed into the overall statistics for deportations from both countries, even though both nations claim not to see the Taliban as Afghanistan’s rightful government.
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Note: The article is just being posted word-for-word, I don't entirely agree with its views.

 

[Silverblaze]

They are stronger states with stronger institutions. In Pakistan everyone is compromised.

 

[Sineva]

Anyone got any ideas on how many afghani refugees the west took in in total during the 20 years it was in afghanistan...?
Its pretty bizarre to expect countries like pakistan with all of its massive economic problems and imf bailouts,or iran facing the most concerted economic warfare effort ever directed at a single country by the west,to take in and care for hundreds of thousands of refugees resulting from soviet and western wars of imperial over reach,oh and lets not forget to mention the inability of the afghanis themselves to form any kind of stable wide ranging political coalition to try and begin to rebuild their wrecked country.

 

[SQ8]

Anyone got any ideas on how many afghani refugees the west took in in total during the 20 years it was in afghanistan...?
Its pretty bizarre to expect countries like pakistan with all of its massive economic problems and imf bailouts,or iran facing the most concerted economic warfare effort ever directed at a single country by the west,to take in and care for hundreds of thousands of refugees resulting from soviet and western wars of imperial over reach,oh and lets not forget to mention the inability of the afghanis themselves to form any kind of stable wide ranging political coalition to try and begin to rebuild their wrecked country.

They are landing in droves - 15000 are expected since the withdrawal. In my city they are now occupying entire neighborhoods along with Somalis. Ukranians have been arriving too but not as much as Afghans.

They are being sent to multiple states and pretty soon Afghanis in the US will be a common sight in comparison to many other immigrants like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and so on.

 

[LakeHawk180]

They are landing in droves - 15000 are expected since the withdrawal. In my city they are now occupying entire neighborhoods along with Somalis. Ukranians have been arriving too but not as much as Afghans.

They are being sent to multiple states and pretty soon Afghanis in the US will be a common sight in comparison to many other immigrants like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and so on.

Well isn’t that a good thing? That at least some afghans were able to find shelter in the US — after what was done to them.

You, like many Pakistanis here wouldn’t dream of settling back “home” — and that number is rising fast. Afghans have a much stronger reason in that respect.

 

[Dalit]

I am here in Turkey right now. Spoke to some Turkish brothers. They are sick and tired of Afghans entering Turkey in such great numbers.

 

[PakistaniandProud]

I am here in Turkey right now. Spoke to some Turkish brothers. They are sick and tired of Afghans entering Turkey in such great numbers.

What are their current thoughts on Pakistan (in general) you would say?

 

[Dalit]

Well isn’t that a good thing? That at least some afghans were able to find shelter in the US — after what was done to them.

You, like many Pakistanis here wouldn’t dream of settling back “home” — and that number is rising fast. Afghans have a much stronger reason in that respect.

Your US/NATO allies claim that Afghans are freeloaders. They didn't fight against the Taliban and ran away despite 20 years of help from US/NATO. Now your Afghan brothers want to settle in Western nations, but Western people don't want them here. According to Western people Ukrainians are more deserving of help. Why doesn't India do its bit and take in Afghans?

What are their current thoughts on Pakistan (in general) you would say?

The Turks are generally positive about Pakistanis. They understand and acknowledge the cultural ties between both nations. They're also aware that Pakistan and Turkey have good military ties/cooperation. I am in Izmir which is a more liberal side of Turkey.

 

[Catalystic]

I am happy and glad that afghans are being removed from these countries. Sucks but our countries have enough issues so don’t need more added.
Go to the west there’s plenty of room in europe, canada/usa, australia, etc

 

[Dalit]

I am happy and glad that afghans are being removed from these countries. Sucks but our countries have enough issues so don’t need more added.
Go to the west there’s plenty of room in europe, canada/usa, australia, etc

LOL the last thing Westerners want is more Afghans. The Europeans are also getting tired of Ukrainians. I spoke to some Dutch colleagues a few weeks ago. Their words, the Ukrainians drive fancy cars, are provided help from the government, take our jobs and homes. You think Western people are going to accept Afghans? Afghans are the last thing on their mind. Afghanistan is a failed project and the Western people don't want to be reminded of it.

 

[SoulSpokesman]

Turkey, Iran and Pakistan are all islamic states. Pakistan was (allegedly) created in the name of Islam. Is it fair or Islamic on their part to deny refuge to Muslim refugees of whatever race?

Regards

 

[Dalit]

Turkey, Iran and Pakistan are all islamic states. Pakistan was (allegedly) created in the name of Islam. Is it fair or Islamic on their part to deny refuge to Muslim refugees of whatever race?

Regards

Pakistan has hosted the largest amount of Afghan refugees in the entire world.

What has India done for Afghans. Don't Afghanistan and India claim to be bhai bhai?

 

[SoulSpokesman]

@Dalit bhai

Pakistan has hosted the largest amount of Afghan refugees in the entire world.

Exactly. No denying that. So why do you want to change that.

Don't Afghanistan and India claim to be bhai bhai?

Bros dont have to stay in the same house, no? Afghans will find Pakistan geographically, culturally and climatologically much more comfortable than India.

Regards

 

[HAIDER]

LOL the last thing Westerners want is more Afghans. The Europeans are also getting tired of Ukrainians. I spoke to some Dutch colleagues a few weeks ago. Their words, the Ukrainians drive fancy cars, are provided help from the government, take our jobs and homes. You think Western people are going to accept Afghans? Afghans are the last thing on their mind. Afghanistan is a failed project and the Western people don't want to be reminded of it.

Afghanis are neither talented nor educated. They are involved in crime and other activities in Germany. German tired too, they prefer Syrian over these people. But now Ukranian......

 

[James David]

Now your Afghan brothers want to settle in Western nations, but Western people don't want them here.

they don't even fight for their own country you expect us to accept frakin useless freeloaders?

Turkey, Iran and Pakistan are all islamic states. Pakistan was (allegedly) created in the name of Islam. Is it fair or Islamic on their part to deny refuge to Muslim refugees of whatever race?

Let them keep their own.