According to reports, up to 1000 Afghans have entered Iran through the border crossing at Dogharoun since the Taliban began controlling Afghanistan. The city of Dogharoun is close to Afghanistan’s Herat city, which was overthrown earlier this month by the Taliban. Iranian media reports that at least 2,000 Afghan nationals have requested entry into Iran.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR had previously stated that half a million Afghans may leave the country amid the Taliban’s takeover. Afghanistan’s neighbors had been urged by the UNCR to keep their borders open. There have been recent arrests of Afghan migrants entering Turkey via its border with Afghanistan as the Turkish government has stepped up its border fence. President Erodgan’s government announced last week that it was pulling troops out of Afghanistan. NATO deployed at least 500 non-combat Turkish troops to Afghanistan as part of the mission.
As the president of Turkey declared earlier, securing Kabul airport was vital to preventing the Taliban’s invasion of the capital, the ministry of defense said: ‘Our armed forces are returning with pride to their homeland after successfully fulfilling their mission. Afghanistan’s stability is vital,’ Erdogan said. Later, Erdogan abandoned his plan to allow Turkish guards to guard Kabul’s strategic airport.
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Erdogan said that Turkey cannot take in the ‘new wave’ of migrants from Afghanistan, noting that the country is already hosting five million refugees and can’t take in more refugees. A report by the European Commission stated earlier that at least 550,000 people were internally displaced since the beginning of 2021. In order to assure Afghan migrants have access to neighboring countries, the EU had said it would ‘intensify’ cooperation with Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan.
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