At least six dead after migrant boat sinks off Turkish coast

Migrants disembark from a coast guard vessel after an operation on the Greek island of Chios on October 26, 2021 [DIMITRIS VOUCHOURIS/Eurokinissi/AFP via Getty Images]

Six people including children drowned when a boat carrying migrants destined for Italy sunk off the coast of southwestern Turkey, the coast guard said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the coast guard said a total of 73 migrants from four life boats were rescued on Tuesday while search and rescue operations for the five missing continued with two boats and a helicopter.

Irregular migrants pushed back by Greece – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

The six dead included one woman, three children and two babies, the statement said.

The migrants initially set off from Lebanon on Saturday for Italy but needed to refuel off the coast of Greece’s Rhodes island, the coast guard said, according to detailed questioning of the rescued migrants.

The Greek coast guard, who responded to their call for help, put the migrants in four life boats and left them near Turkish territorial waters, the coast guard said.

According to data on Turkish coast guard’s website, more than 30,000 irregular migrants were captured so far this year, more than double the number in the same period last year.

READ: Migrants reveal push back, mistreatment by Greece

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.