Turkey law enforcers detained a total of 135 Bangladeshi and Pakistani irregular migrants in the country’s largest metropolis Istanbul, citing security sources, Anadolu Agency reported on Wednesday.
They were held in an operation against irregular migration and human smuggling in Fatih district, said the sources, declining to named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
They were later transferred to provincial migration offices for legal processing.
The state-run agency in its report said Turkish authorities held a record of 454,662 irregular migrants across the country last year, with about 60,000 caught while traversing the Mediterranean Sea.
As many as 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, 175,000 each in 2017 and 2016, and 146,000 in 2015.
About 28,000 human traffickers have also been rounded up by authorities over the past five years.