ISTANBUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities detained 55 migrant smuggling organizers, including nine foreign nationals and 972 irregular migrants during nationwide inspections across all 81 provinces, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.

Yerlikaya said on X that the inspections were carried out as part of Türkiye's ongoing efforts to combat irregular migration and migrant smuggling. The inspections involved identity checks on 431,446 people, with over 28,000 personnel taking part in the operations, supported by 9,000 teams deployed at thousands of locations nationwide.

Yerlikaya noted that the operations were initiated to return the identified irregular migrants to their countries of origin. Enditem