ISTANBUL, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The police have tightened the crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city, arresting 1,615 individuals over the last three days, local media reported Friday.
The police have carried out massive raids in several neighborhoods, including Esenyurt, Fatih, and Zeytinburnu, where illegal immigrants were found highly concentrated, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
Among the arrestees, 722 people were detained in operations on Thursday, the Ihlas news agency reported, adding that the majority of the illegal immigrants came from Asia and the Middle East.
According to Ihlas, the inspections are part of efforts to expulse illegal immigrants from the city.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday that 15,591 illegal immigrants were held in June alone across the country, and 6,883 of them had been repatriated.
"Deportation procedures will continue to deal with the remaining ones," Yerlikaya tweeted, vowing to continue the fight against illegal immigration with strong determination.
Turkish government said the country is hosting four million refugees, including over 3.5 million Syrians who fled the civil war to seek asylum. It added that many of these refugees are unregistered and the exact number remains unclear.
