ANKARA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkey extends construction of a wall on its eastern Van province border with Iran, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Wednesday.
"We will add another 242 kilometers to the 221 kilometers we have built so far along our border with Iran," Soylu said at a meeting on the issue of migration.
"Our negotiations with Iran has resulted successfully. We are planning to finish the 20 kilometers on our (southeastern province) Hakkari border by winter," he added.
Turkey has taken measures on its eastern border before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the minister said, adding that 1,500 Afghan refugees were pushing the borders every day and now it has decreased to 200.
Turkey faces an influx of refugees from Afghanistan through its Iranian border following the withdrawal of American forces.
Nearly 300,000 Afghan refugees are already living in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in August. They are believed to be the second-largest community of refugees in the country after Syrians.
Turkey started to build the walls in the eastern Igdir province in 2017, and has built a total of 159 kilometers of border wall in the eastern Agri province, according to Soylu. Enditem
