ISTANBUL, Jan. 1 ---- Turkey captured a total of 12,872 migrants trying to cross into Greece from Turkey over the Aegean Sea in 2014, according to a report by the semi--official Anatolia News Agency on Thursday.

The report said that the migrants were caught by Turkish Coast Guard Command teams in 524 separate incidents in 2014 and 74 people were also arrested on charges of smuggling migrants.

The majority of the migrants were Syrians, while the others were mostly from Afghanistan and Myanmar, it said.

The number of migrants trying to reach Europe through the risky sea route via the western and southern Turkish coasts has dramatically increased in recent years, particularly since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.

Tens of thousands of migrants have also attempted to cross the Greek and Bulgarian borders by land.

The UN Refugee Agency reported in November that more than 2,500 people had drowned or disappeared in 2014 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

In a recent tragedy, some 24 migrants died after a boat carrying refugees capsized off Istanbul's northern coast in the early hours of Nov. 3.