IZMIR, Turkey
Turkish Coast Guard crews have rescued 376 illegal migrants in operations carried out in the Aegean Sea between March 30 and April 3, Turkish provincial office said in a statement Friday.
Most of the migrants came from Syria.
According to the Izmir Governor’s Office, 252 of the illegal immigrants were from Syria, another 42 immigrant were from Afghanistan and the rest of them were from Africa.
The African and Afghan immigrants were sent to the foreigners’ office, a branch of the Turkish police, for deportation. However, the illegal Syrian migrants were not deported because of the ongoing civil war in Syria.
Most illegal migrants dream of reaching developed European countries through illegal sea routes to escape conflict zones where they reside.
Nearly 1,900 people lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea in 2014 in their attempts to cross into Europe, according to the UN Refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.
