Twenty-two migrants, including seven children, drowned after their boat sank off the Turkish shore, local officials reported on Friday. Officials said the Turkish coastguard rescued two persons, while another two could get out of the sea on their own. The victims’ nationalities were not yet known.
The boat capsized off Turkey’s largest island, Gokceada or Imbros, which lies in the Aegean Sea off the coast of the northwestern province of Canakkale, near Greece’s Lemnos.
Turkey currently hosts over four million refugees, the majority of whom are Syrians. Many migrants attempt to reach the Greek islands from Turkey’s western shores, hoping to eventually reach rich European Union (EU) countries, but many die in the treacherous sea voyage.
Officials reported the yacht began sinking overnight, and on Friday, many ambulances were stationed at Kabatepe port near Gokceada. In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in migrant attempts to cross the waterways between Turkey and Greece.
Since the beginning of the week, the Turkish coastguard reported rescuing or intercepting several hundred migrants, including children, attempting to cross into Greece.
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