INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Turkey is routinely pushing tens of thousands of Afghans back at its land border with Iran or deporting them directly to Afghanistan with
little or no examination of their claims for international protection, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Friday.The 73-page
report, &‘No One Asked Me Why I Left Afghanistan,&& says that Turkey has stepped up pushbacks and deportations to Afghanistan since August
Human Rights Watch also found that Afghans inside Turkey are being blocked from registering for international protection and that Afghans
facing imminent deportation are often given no opportunity to make refugee claims
As of October 20, 2022, the Presidency of Migration Management in Turkey&s Interior Ministry reported 238,448 &irregular migrants whose
entrance to our country has been prevented& in 2022, most of them Afghans
Turkey reported deporting 44,768 Afghans by air to Kabul in the first eight months of 2022, a 150 percent increase over the first eight
months of 2021.&Although Turkey has rightly earned international acclaim and support for hosting the largest number of refugees of any
country in the world, it is simultaneously pushing many Afghans back at its borders or deporting them to Afghanistan with little or no
examination of their claims for international protection,& said Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at Human Rights Watch
&Turkey should immediately halt these routine pushbacks of Afghans from its borders and give all Afghans facing removal the opportunity to
make refugee claims.&Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees of any country in the world, an estimated 3.9 million people, 3.6 million
Syrians with temporary protection and 320,000 others, mostly Afghans.Human Rights Watch interviewed 68 Afghans, 38 of whom described 114
pushback incidents between January 2021 and April 2022
All the men and boys traveling without female family members personally experienced or witnessed Turkish authorities beating or otherwise
abusing them and others who were with them
Many also said that Turkish border authorities shot in their direction, sometimes at them, as they approached or attempted to cross the
border.Human Rights Watch found that many Afghans facing imminent deportation are given no opportunity to make refugee claims or otherwise
challenge their deportation, and their signatures or fingerprints on voluntary return forms are often forced, obtained through deception, or
forged.Because Turkish authorities block access to asylum, forcibly return people who appear to be refugees, and commit other abuses against
migrants and people seeking international protection, Turkey does not meet the criteria of a safe third country provided by EU law under
Article 38 of the Asylum Procedures Directive, Human Rights Watch said.&No EU member state should deny access to asylum for Afghans or other
nationals under the pretense that Turkey would be a safe third country for them,& Frelick said
&EU&s migration management support to Turkey should be made conditional on demonstrated assurances that such support doesn&t contribute to
denying people their right to seek asylum or to returning them to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened.&The post Turkey
pushing tens of thousands of Afghans back at Iran border: HRW first appeared on Ariana News.
