25 June 2018•Update: 02 July 2018
MUGLA, Turkey
Turkish security forces held 241 migrants across Turkey on Monday.
One-hundred-and-seventy-five migrants were held by Turkish soldiers in the northwestern province of Edirne, Turkish gendarme sources told Anadolu Agency.
The migrants -- from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Bangladesh, Somali, Algeria and Myanmar -- were sent to an immigration office in Edirne, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Meanwhile a gendarme operation held 51 others were held in the northwestern province of Kirklareli.
The migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq were taken to an immigration office in Kirklareli.
The operation also arrested four people suspected of involvement in human smuggling.
Earlier on Monday the Turkish Coast Guard rounded up 15 Syrian migrants in the Aegean Sea and arrested a suspect.
The coast guard units told Anadolu Agency that a boat carrying the migrants, including five children, was stopped in the Fethiye district of the southwestern Mugla province. Its driver, identified by the initials G.B., was arrested.
Turkey has been a main route for migrants trying to cross into Europe, especially since 2011, the beginning of Syria's civil war.
Among migrants held in 2017 in Turkey, the majority came from Pakistan -- around 15,000 -- followed by Afghans at around 12,000. Syrians totaled about 10,000.
There has been a 60 percent increase in migrant flow since 2016. The number was 31,000 in 2016.
