Refugees hoping to reach Europe must navigate treacherous route favoured by people smugglers and drug traffickers
It is a treacherous journey of thousands of miles that crosses arid deserts, steep mountains, rivers, armed checkpoints, barbed wire and metres-high concrete walls. But for the Afghans fleeing the Taliban, this inhospitable route – traversing Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and into the Balkans – is the pathway, they believe, to freedom.
After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban this month, following weeks of rapid successive victories across the country, the instinct of many Afghans has been to escape by any means possible.
