Turkish authorities have detained 55 illegal migrants from Afghanistan in the Çanakkale province.
The detainees were transferred to a deportation center in the Ayvacik district after going through legal procedures at a police department, the Anatolian news agency said on Friday.
These migrants were attempting to illegally migrate outside Turkey, Turkish police said, adding that five persons were arrested on charges of smuggling migrants.
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the number of Afghanistan refugees in Turkey has surged and Turkish authorities regularly push them back to Iran or deport them to Afghanistan.
Many migrants have reported suffering abuse and ill-treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities.
Refugees have for years been crossing from Iran via precarious land routes into Turkey, many of them en route to Europe in a bid for a safer and better life, but Turkey has intensified security measures to prevent migrants to its soil.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says there are over 100,000 Afghanistan asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey.
