Over 1,100 illegal migrants nabbed in five days

ANKARA

Security forces carried out five-day operations targeting illegal migration, apprehending 1,117 irregular migrants during the Eid holiday across the country, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced.

In a post on the social media platform X on April 12, Yerlikaya stated that the operations dubbed "Shield-19" also included inspections with mobile migration checkpoints.

Under the coordination of governors’ offices and the ministry’s migration body, a large number of law enforcement forces comprising police, gendarmerie and Coast Guard conducted identity and entry permission checks for approximately 22,700 foreign nationals from April 6, the first day of the extended Eid holiday, to April 10, the minister said.

Teams carried out inspections in 30 metropolitan cities, utilizing 162 mobile migration checkpoint vehicles, including 103 in Istanbul.

Each migration inspection vehicle is staffed with a security officer, an interpreter and a migration expert to facilitate fingerprint and identity checks on suspected illegal migrants. The database is then scrutinized for documents pertaining to the foreigner's residency permits.

Originally launched as a pilot program in Istanbul, these mobile points streamline the process of verifying the migration status of foreigners. Expanding its reach, the program was then introduced in the capital Ankara, the western province of İzmir, the southern province of Adana and the northwestern province of Bursa last October, and is operational in 25 other metropolitan cities as of December.

During the inspections over the five days, 1,117 foreign nationals were identified to have entered the country illegally or overstayed their residency permits and were sent to migration directorates for deportation.

Touching upon the ongoing operations across the country to prevent irregular migration and migrant smuggling, Yerlikaya affirmed that they “will not allow the country to become a target or transit route for migrant smugglers.”

According to the last year's statistics in the fight against migrant smuggling, over 3,700 smuggling organizers were apprehended in 2023.

Türkiye, strategically positioned as a crucial point for the transit of irregular migrants to Europe over the past decade, is actively engaged in migration talks with several countries.

Last year, Ankara confirmed its collaboration with the U.K. to tackle illegal migration, with the agreement outlining intelligence sharing, particularly in combating migrant smugglers and addressing this mechanism.