Coast Guards and gendarmerie units launched an anti-human smuggling operation yesterday in the Mediterranean province of Mersin, detaining 350 migrants, most of whom were Syrians seeking passage into European countries along with several human smugglers. According to reports, 350 migrants traveled to the coastal village of Demirören at night. Once there, a raft was used to transfer the migrants to a Mongolian flagged ship named Ole offshore. The Coast Guard, discovering the transfer, alerted the gendarmerie and in a joint operation detained 279 immigrants on shore waiting their turn, 79 on the ship and 10 members of the ship's crew. The ship and the raft were seized.