In a large-scale operation conducted in four districts of Istanbul, 315 illegal migrants and 6 migrant smugglers were arrested by police. Migrants entered Turkey illegally and were planning to leave Turkey illegally to the west, authorities said. While deportation proceedings were carried out for irregular immigrants caught within the scope of the investigation, 6 suspects who were part of the smuggling network that coordinated the organization and shipment of the migrants were also detained. Two of the suspects who were interrogated at the police station and then transferred to the judicial authorities were subjected to judicial control provisions. Thee of the human smugglers were arrested, and one suspect’s police proceedings are still ongoing.
In addition, four Afghan suspects who allegedly shared footage of a gun and a sword on a social networking site, as well as two people who allegedly committed migrant smuggling by renting their homes to these people, were arrested as part of another investigation. The Afghans were transferred to the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Migration Management for deportation.