The Turkish coast guard has apprehended a total of 50 illegal immigrants in two separate incidents off Turkey's Aegean coast on their way to a Greek island, state-run Anadolu agency reported Tuesday.
The coast guard captured 26 migrants of different nationalities in an inflatable boat off Dikili district in the western province of Izmir.
The migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Gambia, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Tunisia and Palestine were planning to sneak into a Greek island, Anadolu noted.
In a separate incident, 24 refugees from Syria, the Central African Republic, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon were seized by the coast guard off Cesme district in Izmir.
All the asylum seekers were transferred to a provincial migration office, according to Anadolu.
The Aegean Sea was once the main route for migrants trying to sneak into Europe via Turkey. A deal was signed between Ankara and the European Union in March 2016 to curb the flow of illegal immigration.
However, the Turkish government last month decided to allow the refugees to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece after it said it would no longer cope with the burden of over 3.7 million illegal immigrants in the country.
But later, the coast guard announced that the sea was closed to all passages following the order of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Since the beginning of this year, a total of 9,003 refugees have intended to cross to Greece via Turkey, according to figures released by the Turkish coast guard.
Turkish authorities stopped a total of 60,802 illegal immigrants from reaching Greece via Turkey last year, the force said.
SOURCE: Xinhua
