Afghan refugees in Turkey live in fear of deportation
Feb 25, 2022
Ankara [Turkey], February 25 : Afghan refugees who entered Turkey after paying fortunes to human traffickers are now struggling with a very difficult situation - fearing police may deport them as they are without any official documents or visa.
"I went to cross the border for the second time but I was deported once from Greece and a second time from Bulgaria," said Hameed, a refugee, reported Tolo News.
The refugees said they paid a great amount of money to human traffickers to take them to Turkey, but now they are living secretly in order to not be caught by the Turkish forces, which would result in their deportation back to Afghanistan.
"The human trafficker was a cruel person. He told us it is an hour-long path, but it took us two days--with an empty stomach--to pass," said Abdullah, an Afghan refugee in Turkey.
"It was a difficult path. We came to Iran and from there to Turkey, we were beaten up on the way. We have seen troubles which we had experienced before," said Nadeem, an Afghan refugee in Turkey, reported Tolo News.
Abdul Jalil is an Afghan refugee who arrived in Turkey five months ago via Iran. He lives in secret places fearing detention by the Turkish police.
"Life is difficult here. We cannot go and hang around because of the fear that we will be caught by the police," he said.
Many of the Afghan refugees in Turkey are attempting to make it to European states where they can appeal for asylum.
"It is all danger here. If the police catch us, they will beat us, they break people's feet and sometimes take off people's clothes and send them back naked," said Naqibullah, an Afghan refugee.
Tens of thousands of Afghans mostly youth are resorting to dangerous ways to get out of the war-torn nation after the Taliban's takeover on August 15 last year.
