The Turkish police arrested 39 Afghan refugees this Thursday who were traveling hidden among the pallets of a load of kitchen paper on a truck, the Turkish Anadolu agency reported. The agents intercepted the vehicle in the province of Düzce, about 150 kilometers east of Istanbul, and found the migrants hidden among the 20 wooden pallets on which rolls of kitchen paper were piled up.

The refugees They had paid about $3,000 for transportation the driver, a 42-year-old man who has also been arrested on charges of illicit human trafficking, has added the same media. The Afghans have been transferred to the provincial immigration reception center for repatriation.

Since 2018, Afghans represent the collective most numerous among immigrants detained in Turkey due to their irregular situationwith 68,000 cases in 2023 and 10,000 in the first six weeks of the current year.

Part of the Afghan migratory flow is headed to the Greek border or Aegean coast to try to reach European Union territory, while others work as sheep herders in the provinces of Anatolia, where livestock farmers have even asked for massive regularizations to maintain that workforce.

In 2022, the Turkish Government chartered 235 flights to repatriate Afghan migrantswhile expulsions to other countries are usually done on regular flights.