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Over 30,000 illegal migrants deported from CSTO member states - CSTO secretary general

"As concerns efforts against illegal drug trafficking, we have seized a total of 35 tons throughout the year", - said Nikolai Bordyuzha
CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha Zurab Javakhadze/TASS
CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha
© Zurab Javakhadze/TASS

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. More than 30,000 illegal migrants have been expelled from the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) throughout 2015, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said on Sunday.

"As concerns efforts against illegal drug trafficking, we have seized a total of 35 tons throughout the year. As concerns, illegal migration, more than 30,000 citizens of thirds countries who were illegally staying in our states have been deported in our special operations," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Apart from that, he said CSTO security service had exposed 57,000 websites engaged in recruiting people to the terrorist organization Islamic State, which is outlawed in Russia. "A decision has been taken on 50,000 of them, work is underway on the rest," he said.

Plans for 2016, according to the CSTO secretary general, include "a large-scale exercise in Armenia in forming a OSCTO special task force." "Military reconnaissance units will have drills in Tajikistan," he added.

Bordyuzha stressed that the Collective Security Treaty Organization was forced to create additional mechanisms to counteract threats in the Central Asian region and "on the far approaches" - in Syria. In his words, Afghanistan’s law enforcement agencies demonstrate no preparedness to counter the terrorist threat, so this is the task for the CSTO member states.

"From the point of view of the current situation, Afghanistan’s problem cannot be resolved. Whatever NATO representatives might say today, they have failed to solve the problem or the task they had set when introducing their contingent there," Bordyuzha said, adding that about 60% of the Tajik-Afghan border was being controlled by Taliban.

He also said the CSTO member states were worried over the tense situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. He called to spare no effort to prevent escalation of conflict there. "It is a terrifying perspective today because it would set the entire Caucasus on fire," he said.