ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities have detained 42 organizers allegedly involved in immigrant smuggling and 333 irregular immigrants in operations against suspects attempting to bring irregular immigrants to Türkiye via Iran, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
"We will never give an opportunity to immigrant smugglers who try to make our country a destination and transit route for irregular migration," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X.
An investigation led by the anti-immigrant smuggling police department and Border Gates Branch Directorate of the southeastern Diyarbakir province uncovered a money transaction totaling 10 million Turkish lira (about 320,600 U.S. dollars) by some suspects engaged in human trafficking via Iran to Türkiye, said the minister.
Security teams conducted operations across the provinces of Van, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Izmir, Duzce, and Diyarbakir, seizing a large amount of foreign currency, unlicensed rifles, as well as many mobile phones and SIM cards, the minister said, without specifying the timeframe of the operations.
The arrested irregular immigrants have been transferred to the Provincial Directorate of Immigration Management, where deportation procedures have been initiated, the minister added.
In a separate social media post on Wednesday, Yerlikaya said his ministry had set up 162 mobile immigration point vehicles in 30 metropolitan cities of Türkiye.
"Within the scope of combating irregular migration, 192,934 foreigners have been checked at our mobile immigration points in Istanbul alone since July 19, and 56,620 foreigners have been referred to removal centers for deportation," he added.
Türkiye is a popular destination for illegal immigrants and a transit point for those seeking to reach European Union member states. ■
