Turkey captures over 500 migrants in multiple locations

Turkey has captured more than 500 migrants for illegal border crossings in multiple provinces around the country over the past three days.

In the northwestern province of Çanakkale, 285 migrants of Syrian and Afghan origin, who were attempting to cross to the Greek island of Lesbos, were captured in Çanakkale's Ayvac?k district on Oct. 14, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Some 230 of them were captured after gendarmerie forces stopped three passenger buses and six minibuses in Ayvac?k's town of Küçükkuyu.

Fifty-five others of Afghan origin were captured after gendarmerie forces held an operation around the Kad?rga Bay in Ayvac?k's Behramkale village.

All of the 285 were sent to the migration management directorate in Ayvac?k and eight suspects were detained for alleged human trafficking.

In the southeastern province of Batman, 70 migrants of Afghan and Pakistani origin, who had illegally crossed into Turkey with fabricated documents, were captured on Oct. 12 after Batman Gendarmerie Command forces stopped a passenger bus in Batman's Kozluk district, Do?an News Agency reported.

The Batman Governor's Office said in a written statement that 68 Afghan nationals and two Pakistani nationals - including 19 adult females, 26 adult males and 25 children - who were holding falsified documents, were captured in a search of a passenger bus owned by a private company on Oct. 12.

The drivers of the bus were detained upon an order from the Kozluk Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, while the captured migrants gave testimonies before they were sent to the local migration management directorate to be deported.

In the western province of Ayd?n, 148 Syrian and Sudanese migrants who attempted to illegally cross...