Police detained hundreds of migrants near the western town of Ayvacik, a main crossing point to Greece, according to the Anadolu news agency.
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Four suspected smugglers were detained in the sweep, while four boats and six boat motors were seized.
“Ever since September, we have seen the Turkish authorities detaining scores of refugees, often completely incommunicado, and forcibly returning them to neighboring Syria and Iraq”.
The migrants will be sent to a detention centre where some could face deportation, Dogan said, without giving details.
During the sweep, authorities also discovered a body which had washed up on the shore, suspected to be that of a migrant.
Campaign group Amnesty International said in a statement the move is “illegal as it is unconscionable”.
Volunteers help refugees to disembark from a vessel after their arrival on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday.
Benjamin Ward, the deputy director of HRW, a nonprofit, nongovernmental human rights organization with bureaus around the world, said in an article on the organization’s website, “The revived European Union membership talks could create a much-needed opportunity for Europe’s officials to press Turkey on its rights record”.
The EU has also pledged some 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) over the next year or two to improve the lives of the estimated 2.3 million Syrians now living in Turkey, so that they are less likely to board boats for nearby Greek islands and potentially proceeding on to Europe. And they want those already in Europe who are deemed not to qualify for refugee protections to be quickly returned to Turkey.
Germany’s trying to reduce the number of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, saying there are safe places in their own country.
Most migrants who make it to Greece from Turkey attempt to continue their journeys along the so-called Balkan migrant trail in the hope of reaching countries in Central or Northern Europe.
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Another concern is that Turkey will try to restrict the flow of people entering the country, since it is unable to let out the millions it has already in the country. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia started building a fence along its border with Greece over the weekend.
