Flood kills 6 migrants in Turkey’s south

HATAY - Anadolu Agency

Six irregular Syrian migrants lost their lives on Oct. 25 after they were swept by flood while trying to cross to Turkey from its southern border with Syria, according to a security source.

The incident took place near the Kızılçat neighborhood of Turkey’s Hatay province bordering Syria, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Gendarmerie forces and health teams sent to the area have recovered the bodies of six people.

A Hatay prosecutor launched an investigation into the incident.

Major route for migrants

Some 22 migrants were killed and 13 people were also wounded when a truck carrying undocumented migrants plunged off the highway into a waterway in the Menderes district of İzmir on Oct. 14.

Also earlier this month, eight people died and one rescued as a boat carrying irregular migrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast of İzmir province, security sources said on Oct. 10.

Turkey has been a main route for irregular migrants trying to cross into Europe, especially since 2011 when the Syrian civil war began.

The irregular migration of 430,000 people in 2018 has been prevented as a result of Turkey’s improved security measures, security sources said.

Border guards in Hatay, which borders Syria’s Idlib, Afrin and Latakia regions, conduct 24-hour foot patrols along the border.

Apart from the 2.5-meter high security wall - 90 percent of which has been completed - along the border, technological devices, such as thermal cameras, lighting and motion sensor systems, drones and surveillance cameras also help prevent irregular migration.

In the first nine months of 2018, the border guards detained around 200,000 Syrians crossing to Turkey and referred them to the gendarmerie forces for required processes, said the sources.

The security forces also prevented what they called the “illegal entrance” of another 230,000 people to Turkey.