Turkey goes the Trump way; builds border wall to stop refuge influx
Turkey starts building a 295Km long border wall on its eastern border with Iran to prevent the influx of refugees from Afghanistan as the Taliban take over the country.
Afghanistan is reeling under the worst humanitarian crisis, people are soo desperate to escape the authoritarian Taliban rule that they are even trying to hop on the landing gear of aircraft risking their lives.
Turkey under Erdogan which sees itself as the new powerhouse of the Islamic world instead of helping the Afghans has made up a policy of denying entry to them.
Going by the Trump way, Turkey is aiming to build a 295km-long wall on its eastern Iranian border to stop an influx of people from Afghanistan from crossing into the country, via Iran. Trenches will be combined with it and special operation units from the Police Department will also be deployed to the bordering areas in order to increase border security.
Reconnaissance vehicles equipped with night vision devices and electro-optical towers with acoustic sensors will also be deployed to detect mobility in time and prevent it.
Irregular arrivals are already up as Afghans who fled weeks and months ago show up at the rugged border area after a long trek across Iran.
Medi outlet AFP encountered some of these refugees and interviewed them:
“I am coming from Kandahar. I have been on the road for 25 days,” said Mohammed Arif, 18, who paid $700 to a Turkish smuggler but was dropped off long before he could reach Istanbul.
“It is dangerous to return. Where would we go?” he asked in Dari.
Mohammed Zamir, 16, saw no future without help from other countries.
“The Taliban will kill you if you go to a school, they will kill you if you side with the government,” said Zamir.
“And the government will kill you if you side with the Taliban,” he said, recalling life before the Taliban’s capture of Kabul.
“People have no other choice, they have no money, no work, and no employment. What will anyone do there? Where will we go if the neighboring countries do not provide us shelter?”
Turkey’s Defence Minister Akar, recently visited the eastern border to check on the surveillance and construction of the wall. “Our border is our honor,” asserted Akar during the visit claiming that all the civilians and military personnel are just doing their jobs.
