Six dead, three missing in latest migrant boat capsizing off Turkey’s Aydın

AYDIN

DHA photo

Six people were killed and another three went missing on Nov. 18 when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Turkey’s Didim in the Aegean province of Aydın, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

The fiber boat, carrying 13 Syrian migrants bound for Greek islands, reportedly capsized off the Turkish coast due to bad weather conditions.

Locals immediately informed the authorities of the incident. 

Six migrants died and four were rescued from the sea, as coast guard units’ efforts to rescue three missing migrants were ongoing.

On Nov. 15, coast guard units had caught a total of 40 Syrians attempting to cross over to Greece from Didim.

That marked the first such incident in a long time after the migrant deal between Turkey and the European Union. 

According to the deal reached on March 18, for every irregular migrant who reached the EU via Turkey, who Turkey vowed to take back, the EU would take the same amount of Syrian refugees directly from refugee camps in Turkey. 

The EU also vowed to grant Turkey a total of 6 billion euros to be used for Syrian refugees in the country, while also granting visa-free travel to Turkish citizens inside the EU’s Schengen zone, on grounds that Ankara fulfills all of the 72 criteria needed. 

This visa liberalization process is yet to be realized and remains a sticking point in already tense EU-Turkey relations.