Coast guard teams caught a total of 55,467 irregular migrants in Turkish territorial waters in 2024, according to official data from the agency.
The coast guard recorded 2,005 irregular migration cases throughout 2024, which spiked in August at 245, followed by September and November.
Some 45 migrants drowned to death while the authorities detained 484 migrant smugglers in total.
The Turkish coast guard serves to rescue citizens or migrants who face perils like sudden illnesses, accidents or injuries at Türkiye’s search and rescue zones.
The agency conducted 1,345 search, rescue and evacuation missions in 2024. It rescued a total of 24,223 people on 156 boats who faced difficulties at sea.
The agency also recovered the bodies of 187 people and provided medical evacuation to 344 people who were injured or suffered a medical emergency at sea.
Türkiye has been a migration destination, especially in the past decade, and currently hosts more than 4.4 million residents of foreign origin. It hosts more than 3.1 million Syrians under temporary protection, while another 228,290 people stay in the country under the status of international protection.
European countries have remained attractive to migrants from African and Asian countries in the past decade, and Türkiye is a transit route for thousands of asylum-seekers looking to cross over to Greece from its western coasts.
Some migrants make dangerous journeys 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.
While the number of migrants arriving in other countries fell in 2024, the EU border protection agency Frontex reports that Greece saw an increase of almost 40% compared to 2023. It says around 37,000 people have arrived in Greece since the beginning of 2024.
However, around 30,000 of those irregular arrivals traveled by boat from the west coast of Türkiye to the Greek islands in the eastern Aegean rather than crossing the land border between the two countries.
Athens built a 40-kilometer (25-mile) steel barrier on the land border between Türkiye and Greece to prevent irregular migration, and the construction process was completed in August 2021.
Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.
