Three migrants dead as boat capsizes off Turkey’s Aegean coast

ÇANAKKALE - Doğan News Agency

AA photo

Three migrants have drowned after a Lesbos-bound boat carrying a total of 73 migrants of Syrian and Afghan origin capsized off Ayvacık, a district in the northwestern Turkish province of Çanakkale.

Seventy other migrants were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard in the Aegean Sea on Aug. 23, as they asked for help after their boat overturned due to the heavy gusts of wind spurring across the Aegean Sea for over two days.

The boat set off from Ayvacık’s Küçükkuyu neighborhood around 8 p.m. on Aug. 23 and turned over while trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.

The incident came less than a week after three migrants, including two children, drowned while attempting to reach Greece in two separate incidents off Turkey’s Aegean coast.

A 4-meter fiber boat with 12 Syrian migrants en route to the Greek island of Kos sank off the coast of the Turgutreis neighborhood of the southwestern resort town of Bodrum around 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 21 due to strong winds and waves. While some of the migrants swam to shore by their own efforts, others were saved by citizens ashore.

One of the 11 migrants who made it to shore, however, died after swallowing an excessive amount of sea water, despite paramedics’ attempts at resuscitation.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command said in a written statement that 1919 migrants were captured in 65 operations in the Aegean Sea between Aug. 18 and Aug. 21, while nine others died attempting to reach Greek islands.

The number of migrants captured while attempting to reach other countries between Jan. 1 and Aug. 21 rose to 37,202, it said.