Twenty-one migrant smuggling organizers as well as 547 irregular migrants were caught in country-wide inspections, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Friday.
Yerlikaya said on social media that Türkiye offers an exemplary model to the entire world in migration management, respecting human rights and freedoms, adhering to the values of law and civilization, and never compromising public order and security.
He reported that the issue of migration is being addressed in all its dimensions, such as regular and irregular migration, international protection, voluntary, safe and honorable return, combating migrant smuggling and border management.
“With the coordination between our migration directorate, the police, gendarmerie and Coast Guard Command during inspections of abandoned places, public entertainment venues, truck garages, terminals, ports, public transportation stops and stations the identity of 420,269 people were checked in a total of 15,469 places,” Yerlikaya said.
Indicating that one of the smugglers was a foreigner, he added that the procedures to sent back the irregular migrants were launched.
Irregular migration thrived in the past two decades in Türkiye, which sits between Asia and Europe, amid escalating conflicts, poverty and other challenges plaguing the home countries of migrants.
Türkiye boosted security in its land borders while coast guard patrols were increased amid the influx, especially in the Aegean Sea, where Türkiye and Greece, the main gateway to Europe for migrants, are littoral.
Over the past five years, 105,437 migrants were intercepted in Turkish seas and rescued by the Coast Guard Command as they headed into rough seas that claimed many lives over the years.
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said last week that 200,000 Syrians returned to their homeland from Türkiye.
Since the current rulers of Syria toppled the Baathist regime, Ankara has pledged support for the recovery and reconstruction of the war-torn country.
Erdoğan repeatedly said no one would be forced to return to Syria and that they would continue hosting those wishing to stay. The government also granted a limited permit for returnees to return to Türkiye, which they called home for years.
Türkiye once hosted two-thirds of the world’s total Syrian refugee population. At its peak, there were more than 3.8 million Syrian refugees in Türkiye.
Some preferred to cross into Europe illegally in pursuit of better lives. In the early years of the Syrian civil war, Türkiye housed thousands of refugees in tent camps and container cities in its southeastern cities, but over time, most refugees settled elsewhere, setting up new lives, particularly in big cities in western Türkiye.
Be First to Comment