The first batch of illegal Afghan migrants, arrested by the Turkish police in the provinces of Agri, Igdir and Erzurum, were deported to Kabul with a charter flight at 4 am local time, Anadolu Agency reported.
According to Erzurum Province officials, deportation of another 204 Afghan migrants would take place on Sunday, while 467 others will go back to Kabul by Monday.
According to the head of Erzurum immigration office, the deportation process gathered pace after Afghan Embassy staff travelled to Erzurum to accelerate the documentation process, obviating the need for the migrants to be transferred to Ankara or Istanbul.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that the Afghan migrants had crossed into Turkey through Iran due to “ongoing terrorist activities and economic troubles” in Afghanistan.
This week the Hurriyet newspaper reported that several thousand Afghan migrants had crossed into Turkey in recent months and walked for days from the border to reach Erzurum.