Migrant boat sinks in Aegean Sea, killing at least one

İZMİR – Anadolu Agency

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A small boat with eight migrants has sunk in the Aegean Sea, killing one migrant and leaving one missing after sailing from Istanbul’s Foça district in İzmir province to the Greek islands. Meanwhile, 160 more migrants were caught by Turkish security forces elsewhere in the country on April 30.

Two boats and one helicopter from the Turkish Coast Guards staged a search and rescue operation after the boat sank. They rescued six people from the sea soon after the sinking and later found the body of one migrant. Searches continued for the one missing person on May 1. 

Security forces also captured 130 migrants in the town of Bodrum in the Aegean province of Muğla on April 30.

Bodrum Coast Guards and District Security Directorate collaborated on a joint operation after they learnt that many migrants were attempting to travel to Europe from the Gümbet Bay Haremten neighborhood. 

Turkish security forces caught 100 migrants with Syrian, Palestinian and Iranian nationalities on six-meter inflatable boats in the sea before they set sail for the Greek island of Kos. The migrants, which included women and children, were sent to Bodrum Security Directorate for deportation after medical examinations in a state hospital.

Meanwhile, the Turgutreis Coast Guards also captured 30 migrants, including many Syrians, in the Akyarlar neighborhood of Bodrum before they sailed. 

Thirty migrants were also detained by Gendarmerie forces in the northwestern province of Edirne. The detained migrants had Syrian, Georgian, Afghan, Moroccan, Palestinian and Burmese nationalities and were captured in the Bosnaköy and Kemalköy villages in Edirne’s Meriç and İpsala districts on April 30. 

Coast guard teams have rescued 303 migrants in operations launched in the western Aegean Sea region over four days between April 27 and 30, local officials said. Four people, including a Turkish citizen and two Georgian nationals, who were found aiding the illegal migrants have been detained, the İzmir Governor’s Office said in a statement.

Among the migrants, 148 were of Syrian origin and 98 were of Afghan origin, the statement said.