48 undocumented migrants detained on Turkey’s Eastern Express
ERZURUM – Doğan News Agency
Some 48 undocumented migrants, all Afghan, were detained on March 1 on the Eastern Express, a popular train service linking Ankara with the eastern province of Kars.
Upon a denunciation, police waited for the train carrying the migrants at the train station of the eastern province of Erzurum. At about 12 p.m., after the train stopped, about 20 police officers entered the carriages and located the migrants, including one woman and two children, after conducting identity checks.
One migrant told the police they had come from Afghanistan, as there “was war [there], and had escaped from Taliban.”
The migrants were then taken to a police station in Erzurum.
The detentions came only one day after 40 undocumented migrants travelling on the same line were held by the gendarmerie forces.
On Feb. 28, gendarmerie forces conducted identity controls on the Eastern Express in the eastern province of Erzincan and discovered that 40 foreign nationals had fake documents.
The Eastern Express sets off from the Ankara Train Station every day for Kars via Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan and Erzurum provinces, arriving at its destination in just over 24 hours. It has recently been the subject of a minor tourism craze in Turkey, with Instagram users particular keen on snapping its nostalgic aura.
