Three Syrian migrants die off Turkey’s Aegean coast

BODRUM / FOÇA – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

Three migrants, including two children, have drowned while attempting to reach Greece in two separate incidents off Turkey’s Aegean coast, while one person is still missing.

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 resort town of Bodrum at 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 on the shore.

One of the 11 migrants who made it to shore, however, died after swallowing an excess amount of sea water, even though paramedics gave her a heart massage and tried to bring her back to life.
 
Turkish Coast Guards were conducting rescue efforts to find the one migrant who was reported missing after the incident. 

In another migrant crisis, two Syrian migrant children drowned, while 35 others were saved by the Coast Guard off the coast of İzmir’s Foça district after a ship hit the dinghy the migrants were on. 

Some 37 Syrian migrants set sail from Foça for Greece’s Lesbos Island at around 5 a.m. on Aug. 20, but their dinghy was hit by a ship around three nautical miles off the coast. While a total of 35 migrants, who were found floating on the water due to the crash, were rescued alive by Turkish Coast Guards, the bodies of two children aged 4 and 7 were found in the Aegean Sea. 

Of the rescued 35 migrants, 15 were receiving treatment in the Foça State Hospital. The remaining 20 migrants who were being kept at the Coast Guard building were also receiving aid.

The Coast Guard has launched an investigation to find the ship that hit the dinghy.

Meanwhile, Coast Guards have rescued a total of 68 migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Syria from five dinghies, while another 57 were apprehended in three dinghies on Aug. 21 alone.