01 March 2016•Update: 01 March 2016
IZMIR, Turkey
Turkey’s Coast Guard is reporting an 11-times year-on-year increase in the number of undocumented migrants discovered in the country’s Aegean region.
Almost 8,500 refugees were found in Turkish Coast Guard operations in February 2016, 11 times higher than the same term in 2015, officials told an Anadolu Agency correspondent Tuesday.
Many of these people were trying to reach nearby Greece illegally using inflatable boats and fiberglass vessels.
In addition, the Turkish authorities reported that 14,000 refugees were found in the first two months of this year alone.
This is in stark contrast to the same two months of 2015 when the Turkish Coast Guard found 5,535 refugees in January and 753 refugees in February.
Thirty-seven people have died by drowning or hypothermia in Turkey’s part of the Aegean Sea's in February.
Turkey’s Aegean provinces -- Canakkale, Balikesir, Izmir, Mugla and Aydin -- are prime spots for refugees leaving for the EU, with many Greek islands lying within sight of the Turkish coast.
Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of people have made short-but-perilous journeys in a bid to reach northern and western Europe in search for a better life.
Of the more than 1.1 million refugees who arrived in the EU last year, more than 850,000 arrived by sea to Greece from Turkey, according to the International Organization for Migration. Over the course of the year, 805 people died in the Aegean.
