Turkish coast guard units have rescued 12,846 irregular migrants since the beginning of 2022.

Some 417 operations were carried out at sea to rescue irregular migrants, the Coast Guard Command said Tuesday.

The state of irregular migrants is still a hotly debated issue, as the images of people stranded on dinghies or clutching to sinking boats have hurt the public conscience; yet, the possibility of admitting more migrants is still argued about among the European Union members.

Turkey’s location as the last gateway to Europe makes it a favorite destination for migrants, either seeking to reach Greek islands scattered across the Aegean Sea or, farther away, the coast of Italy. Human traffickers profiting from the dreams of migrants from all around the globe give them unsafe rubber boats for their journeys, paving the way for humanitarian tragedies. An informal "pushback" policy of Greece, which is not fully acknowledged yet, further threatens the migrants.

Last year, a total of 3,077 people were lost while trying to cross the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes to the continent, a fresh report from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed, up from 1,544 in 2020. The report demanded urgent action to combat surging deaths among refugees, asylum-seekers and other migrants trying to reach Europe.

"Alarmingly, since the beginning of the year, an additional 478 people have also died or gone missing at sea," UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva.