Earlier this week, the Turkish interior ministry spokesperson, İsmail Çataklı, sought to downplay reports of a fresh wave of refugees, saying video and photographs of long lines of people walking in single file along roads in Iran, just 700 metres from the Turkish border, did not mean they would be able to enter Turkey.

 

Ongoing work to put up security walls, observation towers, floodlights and wireless sensors along Turkey’s borders with Iran and Iraq were 90% complete, he said, adding that “when the project is completed, terrorism, illegal crossing, smuggling, cross-border crimes will be prevented.”

 

The journey, like many migration routes, is extremely dangerous. As well as border defences and the threat of sexual violence from smugglers and fellow travellers for women, overcrowded and unsafe transport has led to deaths and drownings in Turkey. At least 12 people were killed last week after a smuggler’s minibus overturned on the highway, and 60 people drowned after an unseaworthy boat capsized on Lake Van last month.

 

On the Tatvan highway, which runs parallel to the shores of the vast salt lake, a group of four young Afghans and one Pakistani came off the road to rest and eat as the midday heat made it too difficult to continue.

 

They shared some bread, tomatoes and halva between them, faces burnt from days walking in the summer sun.

 

“The Taliban tried to recruit me,” said one of them, who gave his name as Shorab. “We couldn’t stay. We just want to live in a place where there is no war.”