March 01, 2018•Update: March 01, 2018
By Yilmaz Kazandioglu and Yunus Okur
HAKKARI/ERZURUM, Turkey
At least 165 undocumented migrants were held across Turkey on Thursday, security sources said.
Forty-eight migrants -- all Afghan nationals, including two children -- were held in the eastern Erzurum province while traveling on the Eastern Express, a rail line between the capital Ankara and the northeastern province of Kars, said an official who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.
They were taken to a repatriation center, the source said.
Separately, in the southeastern Hakkari province, 17 people were arrested on charges of human trafficking.
In the northwestern Edirne province, police rounded up 117 undocumented migrants trying to cross the border into Europe -- including Afghan, Syrian, Moroccan, Libyan, Iraq, Pakistani, Algerian, Bangladeshi and Palestinian nationals.
Turkey has been a main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.
Among the 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 the migrant flow since 2016, when the number was 31,000.
