Authorities on Sunday arrested two out of three detained suspects and pressed human trafficking charges against them after an accident on Friday in southeastern Türkiye killed nine illegal migrants.
A van carrying 30 migrants from Syria was traveling in Şanlıurfa province on the Turkish-Syrian border when the driver, seeking to avert a gendarmerie checkpost, lost control of the vehicle and plunged into a canal. Six bodies were pulled out of the van, while three others who were injured in the accident succumbed to their injuries at the hospital they were taken to. The survivors sustained injuries, too. Five of the fatalities were children traveling in the van that secretly crossed the border into Türkiye on a foggy morning. The Turkish driver was taking them to central Şanlıurfa when the accident occurred in the Harran district. Seven victims were buried in Şanlıurfa, while two others were sent to their hometown in Syria’s Ras al-Ain.
The driver, also injured in the accident, told investigators that two other suspects smuggled migrants into Türkiye. The driver and one of the suspects were arrested on charges of human trafficking, while another suspect captured in an operation was released pending trial. Authorities are also looking for two other suspects related to the smuggling.
Türkiye, home to the biggest refugee community fleeing the war in neighboring Syria, attracts illegal migrants from around the world, seeking to cross into Europe. In the east, refugees from Asian countries, particularly Afghanistan, enter from the southeastern borders. Syrian migrants often head to Türkiye’s western Aegean shores to get into Greece, their gateway to Europe, or take the land route in the northwest, into Greece and Bulgaria. Their journeys are perilous as some perish at sea aboard unsafe dinghies while in other cases, Greece often resorts to illegal "pushbacks," beating and sending migrants back toward Türkiye even in challenging weather conditions, causing deaths in freezing weather.
The land route is not safe for migrants either as they cram into small vans or trucks with no windows, at the mercy of smugglers who drive recklessly to avoid security forces. In April, four people were killed in a similar accident when a van carrying illegal migrants crashed in the eastern province of Bingöl. The deadliest accident involving migrants in Türkiye’s east was in 2020, when 61 were killed as their boat sank in Lake Van, the province adjacent to the Iranian border.