Nine migrants, including six children, have drowned in boat accident off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
The boat capsized early on Sunday morning near the town of Demre in the southern province of Antalya, according to the Turkish Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard recovered the bodies of nine victims and rescued four others. A fifth migrant was saved by a passing fishing vessel.
32,080 #migrants & #refugees arrived by sea to Europe in 2018.
660 dead/missing. Learn more ➡️ https://t.co/NrTqBYkT2C pic.twitter.com/gQoTCgPqmL
— IOM – UN Migration (@UNmigration) June 1, 2018
Turkey’s state-run Anatolia News Agency reports there were 14-15 people on the vessel, according to the migrants, so authorities were still searching for one unaccounted for person.
The migrants’ nationalities have not been identified.
At the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, more than 857,000 migrants reached Greece from Turkey. A 2016 deal between Turkey and the European Union has dramatically reduced the numbers of migrants coming into Greece.
