Turkey arrests 221 refugees

Turkish gendarmeries stand guard in front of the Silivri Penitentiaries Campus during the first trial of 29 defendant policemen, in Istanbul, Turkey on December 27, 2016 [İslam Yakut / Anadolu Agency]

Turkish police have arrested 221 refugees found heading into and out of Turkey, Anadolu reported on Friday.

More than 120 of the refugees carried Afghani and Pakistani passports and were trying to get into Turkey. Security sources said that after legal procedures were completed, the refugees were handed over to the Migration Department in the governorate of Erzincan.

In Hatay in the south of the country, meanwhile, the police arrested 37 Syrians, who entered Turkey illegally, including two people who are suspected of being human traffickers. A further 57 Syrian and Eritrean refugees were picked up in Izmir on board a rubber dinghy trying to sail to Greece. They were also handed over to the migration authorities in the city.

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