Minister Yerlikaya shared: There is no journey to smuggle immigrants

The Minister of Internal Affairs Ali Yerlikaya shared the details of the “KALKAN-28” operations carried out against the Organizers of Immigrant Smuggling and Irregular Immigrants in 81 states during the past week:

257 suspected organizers of migrant smuggling were arrested.
59 of them were arrested.
A decision of judicial control was given for 22 of them.
Lawsuits for the others are ongoing.
We carried out a total of 6,339 operations against Immigrant Smuggling Organizers in 2024. Following these operations, 3,924 immigrant smugglers were arrested,
A decision of judicial control was given to 1,693 of them.

Combating irregular migration is one of the main problems around the world. As in all areas of migration management, we take our values of law, human rights and civilization as a reference in the fight against irregular migration and immigrant smuggling and in all deportation processes.

We never give a chance to traffickers who try to make our country a target and transit route for irregular migration and people smuggling. We continue our operations with determination in all parts of our country.

“KALKAN-28” operations are coordinated by the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor, the General Directorate of Security, Anti-Immigrant Smuggling and Border Gates Department, and the Directorate of Immigration Control; From the Directorates of Anti-immigrant Branch and Border Gates of the Provincial Police Departments; Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Muğla, Çanakkale, Edirne, Nevşehir, Van, Erzurum, Kocaeli, Konya, Ağrı, Hatay, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, Aydın, Bursa, Denizli, Erzincan, Gaziantaka, Hakkari Samaryon, Batman, Hakkari, Kayseri Ankara, Antalya, Balıkesir, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, It was held in Eskişehir, Manisa, Muş, Rize, Siirt, Trabzon, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak, Yalova and Kilis.

I congratulate the Office of our Chief Public Prosecutor who coordinated the operations, our Hero Police Officers who carried out the operations, and the staff of our Directorate of Immigration Control. May God not let a stone touch your feet. Our nation’s prayers are with you.