Greek riot police guard as migrants try to enter Greece from Turkey at the Greek-Turkish border in Kastanies on Wednesday, March 4, 2020.
photo: AP
Turkey's Interior Ministry announced deportation of 2,106 “illegal immigrants in the past week.
On Saturday, Turkish Ministry of Interior reported that 2,106 irregular migrants were deported across the country between October 28 and November 3.
Between the same dates, the ministry stated that security forces detained 5,317 “illegal” migrants, including 1982 from Afghanistan, 141 from Pakistan, and 3,194 from other nationalities entered the country illegally. Turkey has built a wall on the Iran-Turkey border that aims to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants coming from the east.
According to Turkish media a total of 2,106 illegal migrants, 979 from Afghanistan, 116 from Pakistan and 1011 from other nationalities, were deported. Turkish papers reported that 98,932 migrants have been deported since the beginning of the year, per government figures.
Turkey has become the main transit route for the region’s crisis-hit countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and others. The scale of the issue has pushed it to the top of Turkish political debates, as Erdogan usually touches the issue to push his agenda.