November 05, 2017•Update: November 05, 2017
ANKARA
At least 207 foreign nationals were detained in Turkey on Saturday for illegally staying in the country, security sources said.
In southwestern Mugla province, Turkish Coast Guard teams held 35 Afghan migrants in a boat in the Aegean Sea.
They had ignored a police warning to stop off the Akyarlar Bay in Bodrum district, said security sources, who refused to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Also, 66 Syrians, including women and children, were held during police raids in 13 hotels in Bodrum.
The migrants were holding temporary residence certificates in Istanbul, Izmir, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras provinces and were planning to cross into Europe illegally, sources added.
In northern Karabuk province, the gendarmerie forces searched a passenger bus which was travelling from northern Kastamonu province to northwestern Kocaeli province.
They rounded up 78 migrants, including women and children, who had entered Turkey illegally. Of them 49 were Afghans, 23 Pakistanis and six Myanmar nationals, sources said.
In northern Cankiri province, 48 foreigners were held by the gendarmerie during a road check, sources said.
They included Afghan, Pakistani and Iranian nationals.
In another operation in the northwestern province of Edirne -- bordering Greece and Bulgaria -- Turkish gendarmerie held 18 foreign nationals including Syrians and Eritreans during a road check in Ipsala district, sources added.
An additional five undocumented Syrian nationals were caught during a road check.
All of the migrants were referred to the Migration Management Authority in the related provinces for legal proceedings.
* Reporting by Huseyin Yildiz, Ersin Turan, Muhammed Kaygin, Salih Baran and Osman Uras; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu
