The Turkish coast guard is more occupied with irregular migration than ever as conflicts and economic hardships across the globe drive more to pursue a better life in Western countries. In the past five years, coast guard units intercepted 188,939 irregular migrants in 6,375 cases, official statistics shared by Anadolu Agency (AA) show. This year alone, 38,411 migrants were intercepted, while 296 people suspected of organizing migrant smuggling were detained.

In 2024, the coast guard intercepted 1,387 cases of irregular migration. It has also retrieved the bodies of 40 irregular migrants so far this year in search and rescue work after the sinking of migrant boats.

The number of intercepted irregular migrants has been on the rise since 2020, in proportion to more efficient work by the coast guard. In 2020, the coast guard intercepted 20,380 irregular migrants, while this number rose to 23,676 in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, the number was 49,518 and 56,954, respectively. Along with migrants, smugglers organizing their crossing and profiting off the desperate batches of migrants increased. In 2023, 169 smugglers were captured while this number was 293 in 2022, 113 in 2021 and 53 in 2020.

European countries have remained attractive to migrants from African and Asian countries in the past decade.

The sea route is naturally the main choice of migrants, but it is also the most dangerous as the Mediterranean waters are not always safe for boats, let alone dinghies, a cheap way of transportation for most migrants.

Tricked by migrant smugglers to take the short route from Türkiye to Greece, migrants barely make it to the Greek waters before their boats are either caught or in danger of sinking amid bad weather.

As part of recently revived talks to mend long-tense bilateral ties, Greece and Türkiye are floating a renewal of a 2016 EU deal restricting migration, as well.

Türkiye, which already hosts 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, is taking new measures at its borders to prevent a fresh influx of migrants, balancing a humanitarian policy and the need to stop thousands from risking their lives.

On Sunday, Sabah newspaper reported that Türkiye set up a migrant deportation point in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a bid to streamline the return of intercepted migrants back to their homeland. Intercepted migrants are put on charter flights to Addis Ababa where they are convened at a migration center and deported to 25 African countries where they originated from. Migrants from African countries make up the majority of irregular migrants in Türkiye along with those from Syria and Afghanistan. Türkiye tightened visa rules for African countries and increased screening of people arriving from those countries without visas.

The newspaper reported that Türkiye issued residence permits to 142,432 out of 174,834 people from African countries in the past five years and while 7,302 among them still had valid visas, 25,109 among them were "missing," believed to have illegally snuck into Europe by mixing with other irregular migrants.

In the past year, Türkiye deported 22,987 irregular migrants aboard 121 charter flights to Africa. From Addis Ababa, they were sent to Angola, Benin, Djibouti, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, South Sudan, Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Türkiye provides charter flights to three continents for irregular migrants and in the past year, 142,000 irregular migrants were deported aboard those flights.

The flow of irregular migrants gave rise to a far-right movement in the country, while the opposition parties campaigning on broader human rights for the Turkish public often exploit the situation and adopt far-right rhetoric for the expulsion of migrants and refugees. The opposition claims Türkiye’s borders have been "porous" when it comes to migrants although Ankara refutes this and cites improved border measures.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said last month that they spent $950 million and would spend another $136 million this year for border security. The security he refers to covers a 1,253-kilometer (778.57-mile) wall across the country’s borders, hundreds of "patrolling lanes" staffed by security forces along the blind spots of the border, thermal cameras and other technological instruments to watch the border.

The Interior Ministry also introduced what it called mobile migration points recently for faster checks on undocumented foreigners. Yerlikaya told reporters in August that they had 268 mobile migration control vehicles and that this number would be increased to 350.

"We checked the IDs of more than 1.1 million people and detected 126,766 irregular migrants (through mobile points)," the minister stated.

He said their measures have saved Türkiye 500 million euros ($558.52 million). "You spend 1,000 euros yearly per irregular migrant before she/he is sent back," he underlined.