Five bodies found washed ashore in Turkish Cyprus in January

GIRNE

The lifeless bodies of two more people washed up on the beaches of Turkish Cyprus in the last two days, increasing the number of bodies washed up on the country’s beaches to five in the month of January alone.

The Turkish Cypriot Police Press Office announced that a man's body was found washed ashore on Jan. 30 in the Çatalköy area of Girne. The police noted that another body of a man with missing limbs was found washed ashore in the same area on the morning of Jan. 31. Both bodies have not yet been identified.

It is believed that the bodies belong to irregular migrants who sailed to the Mediterranean Sea on their way to enter Europe or Greek Cyprus.

Earlier on Jan. 8, 14 and 22, three people, whose identities also could not be determined, washed up on the beaches in Turkish Cyprus. While the first body was found on the rocks in the Bafra Hotels Area around noon on Jan. 8, it was recorded that the lifeless body, which had started to decompose, belonged to a woman.

The second and third bodies, which were found in Dipkarpaz on Jan. 14 and 22, belonged to a man and a woman, respectively.

Similar incidents also took place in Türkiye in the past month, where eight bodies washed up ashore in Antalya and one body in Muğla, provinces located in the south of the country.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 3,000 migrants went missing in the Mediterranean in 2023, the highest death toll since 2017.

Türkiye’s southern coasts have been a major route for irregular migrants trying to cross to Europe, especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Several human rights organizations have described the Mediterranean as the deadliest migration route.