People fleeing escalated conflict in Afghanistan heading to Turkey

Click to read the article in Turkish

Marking June 20 World Refugees Day, the Diyarbakır Bar Association Commission for Refugee Rights released a report on refugees recently coming from Afghanistan to Turkey.

The conflict between the Afghanistan government and Taliban has worsened over the past weeks as US troops started to withdraw, with people fleeing the country to escape war and conscription.

Diyarbakır, a predominantly Kurdish-populated city in the country's southeast, has become a hub for refugees from Afghanistan. Many of them gather at the Diyarbakır Intercity Bus Terminal to travel to other cities, according to the report. However, some of them run out of money when they reach the terminal.

The bar association had meetings with the bus terminal managers and shopkeepers around the terminal for the report. Four groups of refugees with each group consisting of three to 15 people were interviewed. Most of the interviews with refugees were made in Persian and some of them were made in Turkish.

The interviewees said that they set off from Afghanistan to go to İstanbul, Turkey through Iran and paid 800 dollars per person to human smugglers.

Traveling both on foot and with vehicles for 15 days, they reached Tatvan, Van, a border town to Iran in Turkey's east, said the refugees.

The refugees are now waiting for the smugglers to take them to İstanbul but they haven't shown up yet, according to the interviews.

The refugees said they were forced to take part in the war both by the government and Taliban and said they had to leave the country to avoid conscription and life-threatening situations.

The Diyarbakır Bar said the government should receive applications from refugees along the Iran border and in Diyarbakır, especially in the bus terminal.

They should be given international protection status and their basic needs should be provided by relevant authorities, it said. (AÖ/VK)