Coast Guard Command

A search and rescue operation got underway southeast of Hydra to find a ferry passenger who fell into the sea in unclear circumstances.

The coast guard operation is focused on an area 18 nautical miles southeast of the island.

A fellow passenger on the "Kissamos," which was en route from Hania in Crete to Piraeus, raised the alert.

Security forces carried out five-day operations targeting illegal migration, apprehending 1,117 irregular migrants during the Eid holiday across the country, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced.

In a post on the social media platform X on April 12, Yerlikaya stated that the operations dubbed "Shield-19" also included inspections with mobile migration checkpoints.

The Interior Ministry has dispatched an extensive array of security measures, encompassing the assignment of a large number of law enforcement units, to the governor's offices of the country's all 81 provinces ahead of the local elections on March 31, Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced.

A rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank off Türkiye's northern Aegean coast on March 15, killing at least 21 people, officials have said.

Turkish Coast Guard personnel rescued two migrants from the sea off the town of Eceabat in Çanakkale province, while two others were able to reach the shore by themselves, Governor İlhami Aktaş said.

The bodies of two canoeists who went missing on Sunday were found on Monday in a sea area off Hora Sfakion, on the island of Crete.

The coast guard said the bodies of the two men, aged 44 and 50, were found by someone on a private boat in the sea 10 nautical miles north of Gavdos. They were retrieved by a coast guard lifeboat and transported to the port of Hora Sfakion.

The search for five of the six missing crew on board Batuhan A cargo ship that sank off in the Marmara Sea continues with an unmanned underwater robot.

Considering the possibility that the crew may have been thrown overboard, the teams are conducting their searches both above and underwater.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has engaged in a series of bilateral discussions with Greek Shipping and Island Policy Minister Christos Stylianidis, focusing primarily on addressing irregular migration in the Aegean Sea.

Maritime Affairs and Island Policy Minister Christos Stylianides discussed migration with Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya in Ankara Thursday.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced the arrest of 80 smuggling organizers and the apprehension of 2,155 irregular migrants in a series of operations conducted across 27 provinces within the first four days of the new year.

A search and rescue operation is underway after a dinghy carrying migrants capsized off the coast of the islet of Agathonissi in the eastern Aegean, the coast guard said.

Seventeen people have been rescued so far. It is not known how many passengers were on board. Two coast guard vessels, a private boat and an air force helicopter are searching the area.