Twenty-one illegal migrants from Afghanistan were injured when their minibus plunged off a cliff in eastern Turkey yesterday. The minibus driver escaped uninjured and fled the scene.

The migrants were traveling on a village road in Diyadin, a district of Ağrı province that is located on the border with Iran. None of the passengers sustained life-threatening injuries and 17 of them were discharged from the hospital after a short stay while the rest remain hospitalized.

Turkey has stepped up measures in the face of a growing and unprecedented influx of illegal migrants from Afghanistan who crossed into the country via Iran earlier this year.

Illegal migrants fleeing from the pressure imposed by Daesh and the Taliban, have been crossing into Turkey on foot for many days, hoping for a better life.

Once in Turkey, they board buses and cars arranged by smugglers to travel to big cities in western Turkey. Some try to cross into Europe through Turkey's western borders, often by dinghies to Greece by way of the Aegean Sea, while others stay in Istanbul and other cities.