At least 33 people, including five children, have drowned in the Aegean Sea after their Greece-bound boat capsized off the Turkish coast.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said coastguards rescued 75 others from the sea on Saturday near the resort of Ayvacik en route to the Greek island of Lesbos.
The agency has identified the survivors as natives of Afghanistan, Syria and Burma.
The International Organisation for Migration said 218 people have died this year while trying to cross by sea from Turkey to Greece.
Turkey is hosting an estimated 2.5 million refugees from Syria. In November, Turkey agreed to fight smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants into Europe. In return, the EU has pledged 3 billion euros to help improve the refugees’ conditions. Saim Eskioglu, deputy governor for Turkey’s Canakkale province, said the 56-foot vessel carrying more than 100 people “hit rocks soon after it left the coast and, unfortunately, it sank”. The Canakkale coast lies barely five miles north of the Greek island of Lesbos.
“We believe there are more bodies inside the boat,” he told CNN-Turk television. A private Turkish news agency, Dogan, said police have arrested a Turkish man suspected of being the smuggler who organised Saturday’s disastrous sea crossing.
MORE SOURCES: AP JANUARY 30, 2016
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says at least 33 people, including five children, have drowned in the Aegean Sea after their Greece-bound boat capsized off the Turkish coast.
Anadolu Agency says coast guards rescued 75 others from the sea Saturday near the resort of Ayvacik en route to the Greek island of Lesbos. The agency has identified the survivors as natives of Afghanistan, Syria and Myanmar.
The International Organization for Migration says 218 people have died this year while trying to cross by sea from Turkey to Greece.
Turkey is hosting an estimated 2.5 million refugees from Syria.
In November, Turkey agreed to fight smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants into Europe. In return, the EU has pledged 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) to help improve the refugees’ conditions. . AT least 33 people, including five children, have drowned in the Aegean Sea after their Greece-bound boat capsized off the Turkish coast, Turkey’s state-run news agency says.
ANOTHER SOURCE ~ ANADOLU Agency says coast guards rescued 75 others from the sea Saturday near the resort of Ayvacik en route to the Greek island of Lesbos.
The agency has identified the survivors as natives of Afghanistan, Syria and Myanmar.
The International Organisation for Migration says 218 people have died this year while trying to cross by sea from Turkey to Greece.
Turkey is hosting an estimated 2.5 million refugees from Syria.
In November, Turkey agreed to fight smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants into Europe. In return, the EU has pledged 3 billion euros ($A4.64 billion) to help improve the refugees’ conditions. BREAKING: 33 migrants now reported to have drowned after their boat sank on the way to Lesbos – Reports.
