Turkey’s interior minister said Thursday that thanks to his government’s strenuous efforts, Turkey has significantly reduced the number of migrants entering the country without papers.
At a meeting of media representatives in Istanbul on Thursday (October 12), Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that since the start of his mandate, Turkish authorities have apprehended more than 112,000 migrants who were in the country without authorization.
The arrests, he explained, took place over the past three months and were spread across nearly 3,000 separate operations, the government-backed newspaper’s English version reported. Hurriyet Daily News.
About 48,000 of those apprehended, Yerlikaya continued, were repatriated to their home countries.
Additionally, Turkish authorities said they arrested around 4,000 suspected migrant smugglers and arrested more than 1,200 of them.
Read also : Why are pushbacks of migrants from Bulgaria to Turkey increasing?
“Migration is one of the global problems of our time,” Yerlikaya said. “Turkey continues to struggle with this problem,” he added, using the country’s alternative name.
At the same time, more than 120,000 foreigners ended up leaving Turkey either because their residence permits had expired or because they had broken the rules in some other way, the minister said.
According to official statistics, Turkey currently hosts more than 4.7 million migrants who are legally registered as asylum seekers or refugees.
Registered in Türkiye but in limbo
But even for these people, relatively strict rules apply: many Syrian refugees hosted in Turkey, for example, are registered in a certain region of Turkey and are not allowed to move away from that registration area to live or work.
The country’s police forces regularly arrest those who try to circumvent the rules, for example people who move to Istanbul in the hope of finding work there, even if they are registered in southeast Turkey , near the border with Syria, or in another part of the country. the country.
In Istanbul, reported Hurry upauthorities have recently carried out more than 300 operations, targeting any unauthorized migrant, making more than 94 arrests.
Read also : What is behind the rise in violence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border?
Border controls intensified
Over the past four months, Yerlikaya says his forces have stopped more than 80,000 migrants from crossing Turkey’s borders without proper documentation or permits.
He justified the strict controls by saying those who enter the country without authorization could seek to carry out terrorist attacks.
This follows a suicide attack which took place in front of the Interior Ministry building in Ankara on October 1.
Migration continues on the Balkan route
The minister’s claims may, however, only provide one side of the migration story; despite strict controls, migrants continue to arrive in Turkey and travel from its borders to Greece or via the Balkan route.
On Friday October 13, seven migrants were killed and 16 others injured after the vehicle they were traveling in crashed in southern Germany. According to German police, the majority of the 23 migrants on board were from Syria and Turkey, and most are believed to have crossed into Turkey. before finally arriving in Germany.
Read also : More and more Turkish citizens are seeking asylum in Germany
An increase in the number of migrants traveling further along the Balkan route has also been recorded in a number of countries in recent months, including Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.
The majority of those taking the so-called Balkan route initially come from Syria, Afghanistan, countries in South Asia and the Middle East. Many of them pass through Turkey before heading northwest through Greece, Bulgaria, then through countries like Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and as far as Austria or Germany.
Read also : UK and Turkey announce new agreement on migration
During a recent EU meeting on migrationbringing together the leaders of five Mediterranean countries – Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain – it was agreed that Europe should renew its migration agreement with Turkey, signed in 2016.
The deal was widely credited with reducing the number of migrants traveling from Turkey to the EU and provided EU funding to Turkey in exchange for welcoming millions of Syrian refugees.
With dpa, AP and AFP