Turkish coast guard and gendarmerie teams detained 32 irregular migrants, including 14 children, in the Ayvacık district of the country’s northwestern Çanakkale province, authorities said on Wednesday.

According to the Coast Guard Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) Unit and the Çanakkale Gendarmerie Command, teams detected a group of migrants on land near the Gülpınar neighborhood. Security forces apprehended all 32 individuals shortly after.

The migrants were taken into custody and later transferred to the Ayvacık Migrant Reception and Transfer Center (GÖKSEM) for processing, officials said.

Türkiye remains a major transit route for migrants attempting to reach Europe, with security forces frequently conducting operations against migrant smuggling networks along the Aegean coast.

Especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants flee civil conflict or economic hardship in their home countries with the hope of reaching Europe.

Some migrants make the dangerous journey over land or sea with the assistance of smugglers, who often abandon them, especially during sea journeys, after receiving thousands of dollars from each migrant. Others are stopped by Turkish security forces before crossing the border into Europe.

In some cases, neighboring Greece is accused of pushing back migrants in a controversial practice. In the Aegean Sea, Greek coast guard boats often drive out to avert migrant boats approaching Greek islands.

"Pushback” is a controversial and illegal practice, but Greece has repeatedly engaged in it, according to reports by human rights organizations monitoring migrant flows into Greece, which have escalated in the past decade.