66 more migrants heading to Europe captured in southern Turkey

MERSİN – Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

The number of migrants recently captured in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin by the Turkish Coast Guard has increased to 416, after a raid on a ship heading toward Italy. 
The Turkish Coast Guard and Mersin Gendarmerie captured an additional 66 migrants of Syrian origin on April 27, a day after 350 migrants, a majority of them Syrian nationals, were captured in a raid operation. The 66 Syrians were waiting to be transported to a ship heading toward Italy. 

Gendarmerie forces and the coast guard previously captured 71 migrants onboard a ship in the Bozyazı port of Mersin, while also catching 271 migrants waiting to board the ship early April 26. Turkish security forces learned the migrants had started to board the Mongolian-flagged ship “Ole” on the night of April 25. 

Ten of the ship’s crew, of which one was a Turkish national, and the others of Syrian origin, were detained, while the dinghies used to carry the migrants to the ship were seized.

Police released 416 Syrian migrants after being taken to the police’s foreigners department. 

Turkey captured almost 100 migrants attempting to enter Europe via its Aegean Sea borders over the weekend.

Turkish coast guards captured 38 Afghanistan nationals on the Aegean Sea on April 25, as they sailed from Bozcaada in the northern Aegean Sea, to reach Greece’s Lesbos Island.

In a separate development, 30 migrants of Afghan and Syrian nationality were captured in the Kofçaz district of the Thracian province of Kırklareli.

Meanwhile, Turkish security forces captured 24 migrants from Syria, Pakistan, Morocco and Myanmar in the northwestern province of Edirne on April 25.