Thousands are trying to flee Kabul after the Taliban entered Afghanistan's capital on Sunday, following days of quick offensives that led the militant group to seize more and more key cities across the country and finally take over the last stronghold of the Afghan government.

Reports from Kabul have given testimonies of people desperately queuing in front of cash machines to withdraw their life savings and flocking to the airport.

Even President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan has reportedly fled the country later on Sunday.

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According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 550,000 people in Afghanistan have fled their homes due to the conflict since the start of this year.

An update on Sunday shows that about 126,000 people were displaced in the month leading to August 9 alone, in the weeks leading to the U.S. troops' withdrawal.

Around 80 percent of nearly a quarter of a million Afghans forced to flee since the end of May were women and children, according to the agency.

The issue of the Afghan refugees is a humanitarian catastrophe that's unfolding in front of the eyes of the world – and to which the international community and especially the West, which has withdrawn from the country, will have to respond to, said the UNHCR. But the answer might not be the most supportive.

Afghan refugees' perilous trips have increased in recent months, especially to Turkey, home to the world's largest population of refugees.

Recent reports and videos show hundreds of Afghan refugees crossing into the country from Iran – but the Turkish government is not welcoming them with open arms.

Instead, Ankara has been eager to show that it is currently increasing security measures. 

The defense minister Hulusi Akar has been inspecting the 295-kilometer border with Iran, where a modular concrete wall is being built, and announced that a 64-kilometer section will be completed within the next five months.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing troops on the border via video, said he hopes Turkey will be able to completely block every entrance and exit to the country, supported by the walls being built on the borders. 

He says they'll become firewalls and lighten the burden of the armed forces.

Turkey has also recently been carrying out operations to capture refugees and illegal migrants. Istanbul's migration authority has announced that more than 37,000 thousand irregular migrants have been deported over the past seven months. It was noted that over 12,000 of those were Afghan nationals.

Erdogan has also called on Pakistan for support in "bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan where violence has intensified" in order to avoid what he called "a new migration wave."