‘Migrants from Afghanistan might be used by paramilitary forces’

The refugee movements triggered by civil wars and imperialist interventions in the Middle East are experiencing the peak of the last forty years. Since Israel’s occupation of Palestine in 1967 and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979, the problem of fleeing people has increased in turn in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and other countries. According to official figures, five million Syrian nationals have sought refuge in Turkey over the past decade. For the past two years, more and more people fleeing the Taliban or the government have been arriving in Turkey from Afghanistan.

Unlike the Syrians, the people from Afghanistan do not want to continue to Europe. Most of them want to find work in Turkey. They travel on dangerous routes through Turkey via Kurdistan, if possible to Istanbul, Izmir or Ankara.

The Committee for the Rights of Migrants at the Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) Bar Association has been investigating the situation of Afghans in the city. Lawyer Bawer Mizrak, the chairman of the committee, demands the right to stay for all people who seek refuge in another country due to the consequences of war.

Wars and refugee movements

In Mesopotamia, there have always been migratory and refugee movements due to wars and conflicts in history, noted attorney Mizrak and continued: “Turkey and Kurdistan are the gateway from the Middle East to Europe. This has become an issue in brutal form, especially with the war in Syria. Currently, there are about five million registered Syrians living in Turkey. As for the movement of refugees from Afghanistan, we mainly remember the people who came in the 1980s and stayed in Turkey. Actually, migration has been taking place for forty years. In recent years, there has been a serious increase. After footage was published in the social media, we as a committee of the Bar Association visited the Afghans at the bus station. During that visit, we found that mostly people from Afghanistan are there, but also from Nigeria and Iraq.”

Difficult escape routes

The migrants are brought to the border with Turkey by smugglers for $800 to $1,000, Mizrak said: “A large part of the way they come on foot. They say they are not stopped at the border and they have not experienced a situation where someone was stopped and sent back. However, it has also been reported that some of them have suffered gunshot wounds. It takes them about a month to get from Afghanistan to Diyarbakir. This time is highly problematic in terms of housing, health care, and the integrity of life. They said they have experienced bad things with drivers when they had to rely on a car. Ultimately, they want to go to Istanbul and Ankara via Diyarbakir. Hardly anyone wants to migrate to Europe.”

No security and no perspective

According to the lawyer, there are about a thousand refugees at the bus station in Amed,. “They live there without shelter and food aid. Among them are women and children. The majority are men between the ages of 15 and 25. They say they have come here because of the flare-up of the war in Afghanistan, because they have economic problems and their lives are not secure.

Some want to move to their relatives in western Turkey and work there. This situation will lead to cheap labor and all forms of exploitation. It is also possible that they will be used by paramilitary forces. After the Syrians, a demographic change can now take place with the Afghans in both Turkey and Kurdistan.”

Risk of exploitation

Bawer Mizrak of the Bar Association pointed out that these people as “irregular migrants” they have no rights: “They can only visit hospitals in emergencies, there is no state support in the form of accommodation or food. That’s why they have to get a legal status. In any case, Turkey only defined the “refugee” term after the Geneva Convention. However, only refugees from Europe are accepted. Those coming from the Middle East or further afield are not recognized as refugees. For Syrians, a designation called ‘Temporary Protected Status’ was established in 2014, but that was related to mass migration. Now more and more Afghans are coming. Turkey needs to give them a status like the Syrians.”