Turkey Rounds Up More Than 400 Would-Be Immigrants

August 9, 2001 - 0:0
ANKARA -- Turkish security forces have detained 408 people suspected of planning to sneak into other countries illegally, the Anatolia News Agency reported. In Canakkale Province, paramilitary gendarmerie groups detained 230 illegal immigrants hiding in a wooded area and waiting for a ship to take them out of the country, the report said. The immigrants -- of Turkish, Palestinian, Afghan, Sudanese and Iraqi origin -- said they had agreed to pay between 1,800 and 2,500 dollars to unidentified traffickers, Anatolia added. In a separate operation in the province of Izmir, gendarmerie troops caught 178 mostly Turkish immigrants who were planning to travel to Italy, the agency said.