ISTANBUL, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish coast guard rescued at least 220 illegal immigrants in separate incidents off Turkey's Aegean coast during the last two days, the force announced on its website.
The incidents happened when Greek coast guard teams pushed the boats carrying migrants to several Greek islands on the Aegean Sea back to Turkey, according to the announcement released on Tuesday.
Turkish teams rescued 93 migrants of Syrian and Afghan nationalities near the Kusadasi resort town in Turkey's western province of Aydin.
In another incident off Ayvacik district in the northwestern province of Canakkale, 49 Afghan refugees called for help when the Greek force drove their inflatable boat back to the Turkish territorial waters.
Additionally, a total of 78 migrants, mostly Syrian and Afghan, have been rescued by the Turkish teams off the western province of Izmir.
For the last six days, an increasing number of illegal immigrants have been trying to cross the Aegean Sea with plans to sneak into a Greek island after Turkey said it would no longer stop them from going to Europe.
The Aegean Sea was once the main route for migrants trying to sneak into Europe via Turkey. A deal was signed between Ankara and the European Union in March 2016 to curb the flow of illegal immigration.
But the Turkish government decided last week to allow the refugees to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece after at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold.
The aggravated war in Idlib has recently forced another 1.5 million refugees to flee toward the Turkish border.
Hosting over 3.7 million Syrian refugees in its territory, Turkey earlier announced that it could no longer cope with a new flow of refugees alone.
