Turkish police on Friday detained 167 illegal migrants trying to sneak into Europe, in a crackdown on human smuggling rings, the police said. The police detained the migrants during a search of two buildings on the outskirts of Istanbul and of a truck, in which migrants had been traveling, AP reported. The migrants were from Mauritania and Pakistan, and officials said they were waiting to be smuggled to European countries, the Anatolia news agency reported. Authorities said the migrants would be deported. Thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa pass through Turkey each year in an attempt to reach better economic opportunities in western Europe. The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, is pressing Turkey to crack down on illegal immigration.
