Security forces nab 1,177 irregular migrants across Türkiye

TURKISH security forces captured 1,177 irregular migrants in “Shield-19” operations in five days across the country, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Friday.

Shield-19 operations targeting human trafficking organizers and irregular migrants are being conducted with mobile migration checkpoint vehicles, Yerlikaya said on X.

“During the first five days of the Ramadan Eid holiday (April 6-10, 2024), coordinated by our governorates and Directorate General of Migration Management, inspections were carried out in all 30 metropolitan cities with 162 mobile migration checkpoint vehicles by our police, gendarmerie and coast guard, with 103 of them in Istanbul,” he said.

“A total of 22,707 foreigners’ identity information was checked, and among them, 1,177 were identified as irregular migrants,” he added.

Yerlikaya noted that the captured irregular migrants were promptly handed over to the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management offices for immediate deportation procedures.

“We will never allow migrant smugglers who seek to make our country a target and transit route for irregular migration to succeed,” he added.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for irregular migrants who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants flee civil conflict or economic hardship in their home countries with the hope of reaching Europe.

Some migrants are able to make the dangerous journey over land or sea with the assistance of smugglers, who often abandon them, especially during sea journeys, after receiving thousands of dollars from each migrant. Others are stopped by Turkish security forces before crossing the border into Europe. Türkiye, which already hosts 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, is taking new measures at its borders to prevent a fresh influx of migrants, balancing a humanitarian policy and the need to stop thousands from risking their lives.

A gendarmerie officer stands guard over a group of irregular migrants caught with two smugglers, off the coast of western Çanakkale province, Türkiye, March 19, 2024.