Turkey

There is a long history of migrant smuggling in Turkey and its immediate neighbourhood, which started with the irregular flows of migrants from Afghanistan by the end of the 1970s following a series of events, namely the following: (a) the Soviet invasion, civil wars, Taliban regime; (b) in the early 1980s from the Islamic Republic of Iran after the regime change and persecution based on religion and political opinion; (c) end-1980s from Iraq due to Saddam’s attacks on Kurds followed by American occupation in 2003 and the civil war; and (d) more recently from the Syrian Arab Republic fleeing from civil war that erupted in 2011. Apart from these flows, Turkey has transformed into a transit migration hub for migrants hailing from Africa and South Asia thanks to the dynamics of globalization and increasing mobility.

Related Subject(s): Drugs Crime and Terrorism

Countries: Turkey