13 migrants saved from freezing to death in Turkey

By Erdal Turkoglu, Salim Tas and Cihan Demirci

HATAY, Turkey

Security forces saved 13 irregular migrants, including six children, who were about to freeze to death in southern Turkey, health officials said Thursday.

Migrants who illegally crossed into Turkey via the Syrian border were dispatched to nearby hospitals in Hatay province, said the officials.

Later, nine irregular migrants were released while treatment is underway for the others.

"Children were about to freeze. We were hungry and thirsty. Turkey's gendarmerie found us and saved us. They took us to the hospital," migrant Fatma Sattuf, the mother of two children told Anadolu Agency.

Meanwhile, Turkish gendarmerie rounded up 470 irregular migrants who were attempting to cross the border illegaly in the northwestern province of Edirne, security sources said on Thursday.

Migrants from Morocco, Libya, Palestine, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria and Iraq were rounded up during regular patrols by gendarmerie units in the village of Bosnakoy and the districts of Ipsala and Meric, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Turkey has been a main route for irregular migrants trying to cross to Europe, especially since 2011 when the Syrian civil war began.