ADDS MIGRANTS HELD IN EDIRNE; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Zafer Tayfur, Seyhan Kirici, and Salih Baran
BALIKESIR, Turkey (AA) – More than 50 undocumented migrants were held on Monday in two separate police operations in Turkey’s northwestern and eastern provinces.
In the coastal northwestern province of Balikesir, police found 50 undocumented migrants in two cars and two minibuses on the road between the island of Cunda (Alibey) and Patricia Bay, the governor’s office said in a statement.
Six others believed to be human traffickers were also taken into custody, the statement added.
In another operation in the eastern Van province, police found five Afghan migrants trying to reach Istanbul, according to a security official who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.
The Afghan migrants will be deported, the official added.
Separately, in the northeastern province of Edirne, Turkish security forces held 475 people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Syria who were trying to illegally reach Greece and Bulgaria.
So far, hundreds of thousands of people have made the short but perilous journey across the Aegean to reach northern and western Europe. Nearly 2,000 refugees per month cross into Greek islands, according to UNHCR refugee agency data.
In March 2016, Turkey and the EU signed a deal which aimed to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving the conditions of some 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
