Turkey has detained around 300 migrants, mostly Afghans, who were trying to cross into the country from the Iranian border, local media reports said.  Refugees often cross over into Iran through various smuggling routes and then proceed to Europe via Turkey.  

Turkish officials said on Wednesday they had intercepted a large truck carrying these people, most among them are women and children.

Concerns over a potential new influx of migrants into Turkey from Afghanistan, via Iran, have grown in recent weeks as violence between the Afghan government and the Taliban has surged as US and NATO forces withdraw.

Since January this year around 270,000 Afghans were displaced inside the country, according to an estimate by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), bringing the total number of Afghan people forced from their homes to more than 3.5 million since the war began. 

Since May this year, the Taliban, the main Afghan insurgent group, has intensified its military campaign and is pushing fighting into the population centers, forcing people from their homes. The renewed military came after the withdrawal of most foreign troops from the country. 

The country has been facing a huge humanitarian crisis. Calling warring parties and the international community to establish a ceasefire immediately, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said this week that the need of the hour was to start a justice-orientated peace process. 

The AIHRC also said, “We urge national and international organizations working in this field to work on developing programs and establishing or strengthening the structures required for IDPs’ access to housing, education, health, social participation, and psychosocial support.”

On Wednesday, the Afghan government claimed that the insurgents had executed Abdullah Atif, a famous Afghan historian, and poet, in Uruzgan province. Earlier this week, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) also alleged that the Taliban were summarily executing many soldiers, government officials, and civilians. 

In Spin Boldak, an Afghan-Pakistan border town in Kandahar, the watchdog confirmed the group had killed 44 people. Similar incidents were reported from Ghazni and Kandahar where the group captured most districts in recent days. 

In many areas that had recently fallen to the Taliban, insurgents were searching homes of former government employees, soldiers, and detaining scores of people whose future remained uncertain. 

(SAM)