ANKARA: According to local officials, a bus transporting Afghan, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi migrants crashed in eastern Turkey early Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 26 others.

The accident happened near the Turkish border with Iran in Van province’s Muradiye district, where the car caught fire after sliding into a ditch, according to two local people with knowledge of the situation.
Both sources indicated the identities of those killed in the accident were unknown at the time, but that the bus’s owner had been apprehended.

Turkey has long served as a major crossing point for migrants seeking to enter Europe. Migrants, primarily from Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, cross the Iranian border into Turkey on foot on a daily basis before being transported west to places like Istanbul and Ankara.
As rescue personnel combed through the burnt-out debris, television broadcasts showed moaning survivors being treated by the roadside.
According to Metin Corabatir, president of the Ankara-based Centre for Asylum and Migration Studies, the expected US pullout from Afghanistan has provided extra incentive to young men trying the steep route.
When their boat sunk in Lake Van in June 2020, more than 60 refugees drowned.

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