Two illegal Afghan immigrants drowned in southwestern Turkey

Two illegal Afghan immigrants were drowned and a third was missing on Saturday in Turkey's Aegean province of Aydin where they jumped into the sea to escape from gendarmery forces, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Acting on a tip-off, Turkish gendarmery forces arrested in Didim 50 illegal immigrants of Mauritanian, Iraqi and Afghan origins, who were planning to sneak into Greece.

Three Afghans jumped into the sea to escape from the gendarme, the report said, adding that two of them were drowned and the third was missing.

Turkey has often been used as a springboard by illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Asian countries to go to Europe.

In 2004, Turkish security forces have captured 56,430 illegal immigrants in Turkey.

Source: Xinhua