clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Coast guard rescues over 300 migrants in western Turkey

April 30, 2015 at 4:02 pm

Turkish coast guard teams have rescued 303 migrants in operations held in the western Aegean Sea regions over four days ending on April 30, local officials said.

Four people — including a Turkish citizen and two Georgian nationals — who were found aiding the illegal migrants have been detained, the governorate of Turkey’s western Izmir province said in a statement.

Among the migrants, 148 were of Syrian origin and 98 from Afghanistan, the statement said.

A court in the north-western province of Canakkale handed four Turkish nationals 30 years each in prison on Wednesday in connection with the deaths of 24 migrants when a boat sank in July 2013 in the Aegean Sea.