Police detain around 30 foreigners in Istanbul after escape from deportation center

ISTANBUL

AA photo

Police in Istanbul detained roughly 30 foreigners late on Nov. 20 as part of ongoing efforts to apprehend illegal migrants who escaped a deportation center, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Police units conducted passport and identity checks in the Fatih district to apprehend a total of 123 illegal migrants who escaped a deportation center in the central Kumkapı neighborhood on Nov. 19 after setting the building alight, reportedly in protest at the poor conditions in the facility.

Around 30 suspected foreigners, mostly Pakistani, Iranian and Afghan citizens, were detained in the operation following police checks.

The detained foreigners are expected to undergo a detailed identity check to determine whether they were among those who escaped the deportation center.

The Interior Ministry earlier said in a statement that 20 foreigners among 123 were caught by police immediately after the incident.

It also added that an investigation into the incident has been opened and that public personnel guilty of negligence over the incident had been suspended from their duties.

On Nov. 19, the escapees, mostly Afghan and Pakistani citizens, escaped from the deportation center at 11 a.m. after setting furniture in the building on fire.