40 undocumented migrants detained on Turkey’s Eastern Express

ERZİNCAN - Anadolu Agency

Some 40 undocumented migrants have been detained on the Eastern Express, a popular train service linking Ankara with the eastern province of Kars, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Feb. 28.

Gendarmerie forces, who conducted identity controls on the train traveling to Ankara from Kars in the eastern province of Erzincan, discovered that 40 foreign nationals had fake documents.

The 40 migrants, including two women and three children, are reportedly from Afghanistan and Pakistan and were carrying documents that looked like they were from the Kars Provincial Directorate of Migration Management. However, the directorate notified gendarmerie forces that it had not provided such documents, after which the migrants were detained.

Meanwhile, a total of 117 undocumented migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh were also detained in the Üzümlü district of Erzincan.

While conducting routine roadside identity checks, gendarmerie forces discovered that all 117 migrants, including 13 women and six children, were undocumented.

It was later found that a Turkish truck driver smuggled the migrants in Turkey and was arrested shortly afterwards on charges of “human trafficking.”

All 157 migrants are expected to be deported after necessary procedures.

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.