Over 340 undocumented migrants held in Turkey

MUGLA, Turkey

A total of 344 undocumented migrants, including women and children, were held in Turkey's western and eastern provinces, the Turkish security sources said on Wednesday.

The teams from the provincial police department noticed 100 people preparing to leave Bodrum district of Turkey’s Mugla province via illegal means, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The migrants were taken to a provincial migration authority.

In eastern Erzurum province, 194 more undocumented migrants, including old women and children, were held at bus terminal, another security source said.

Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani nationals were sent to a provincial migration authority to be deported. 

Another 50 migrants were detained in eastern Van province, according to a statement by the gendarmerie command in the province.

The migrants, 44 of whom are Afghan, four of them Pakistani and two others Uzbek nationals, were found in an abandoned building.

Turkey has been a main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.

Among the migrants held in 2017 in Turkey, the majority came from Pakistan -- around 15,000 -- followed by Afghans at around 12,000. Syrians totaled about 10,000.