Irregular Migration in Turkey

In recent years, illegal transit migration through Turkey, together with the use of Turkey’s territory as a transition post for onward migration towards the west, has become an issue of growing importance to the Turkish government. The government seeks to control and manage transit migration, often organized by criminal smuggling and trafficking international networks. This report — based on interviews with migrants, migration officials and traffickers — provides useful insights into the origins and motivations of transit migrants and their reasons for farther migration. It illustrates the workings of well-organized local and international criminal networks and discusses Turkey’s policies and efforts to manage substantial and irregular migration flows through its territory in cooperation with western European countries.