No forced deportations from Turkey, says Barakzai

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghan consulate general in Istanbul, on Monday scorned Amnesty International’s report regarding the forced deportation of refugees from Turkey.

Zakaria Barakzai, the Afghan consul general in Istanbul, Anadulo — the state-run Turkish news agency — the Afghan migrants’ return to their country was voluntary and based on coordination.

“Recent claims of Amnesty International regarding the forced deportation of Afghans from Turkey and forcing them into furnishing an undertaking that they will not come back to that country are baseless,” he said.

“I can say the Afghan migrants’ issue in Turkey is used as a foreign policy tool. The Afghan in that country should not be used as a political or foreign policy tool,” Barakzai remarked.

He added documents distributed to the Afghans were in Pashto, Dari and English languages, not in Turkish. The papers were distributed by Afghan diplomats to those who illegally entered Turkey, he explained.

Statistics show more than 27,000 illegal Afghan migrants have entered Turkey through Iran during the last three months. At least, 1,500 Afghans have received documents for turning to the country over the last three weeks.

Barakzai said, “We have information that 1,500 Afghan migrants have visited our consulate over the last three weeks and requested for returning to Afghanistan,”

mds/mud

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