Turkey Stops 100 Syrians trying to Reach Europe

(AP) — Turkey’s coast guard says it has intercepted nearly 100 Syrian migrants over two days attempting to reach Greece.

A statement says 43 migrants were caught early Friday in the western province of Izmir, when a coast guard vessel intercepted a rubber dinghy.

In an earlier statement, the coast guard said it stopped 50 Syrian migrants, including children, on Thursday.

The Turkish coast guard’s operations are part of a deal struck with the European Union in March 2016 to curb illegal migration to Greece. In the year before the deal, an estimated 1 million people crossed the Aegean Sea to enter the EU. Hundreds drowned.

Turkey is hosting more than 3 million Syrian refugees. According to coast guard statistics, nearly 6,000 migrants have been stopped so far this year.