ZCZC
BFF-36
EUROPE-MIGRANTS-TURKEY-ACCIDENT LEAD
Twelve dead after migrant boat sinks off Turkey: coastguard
ANKARA, June 17, 2019 (BSs/AFP) – Twelve people died after a boat carrying
migrants sank off southwestern Turkey on Monday, the coastguard said.
Thirty-one migrants were rescued after the boat went down off the coast of
Bodrum district in Mugla province, the coastguard added, with search and
rescue efforts continuing.
The nationality of the migrants was not immediately known.
The incident took place a few kilometres (miles) from the Greek island of
Kos.
Home to three million Syrian refugees and up to 300,000 Iraqis who have
fled conflict, Turkey is a transit country for migrants trying to reach
Europe.
Numbers have dropped since hitting a peak in 2015 when over a million
people arrived in Greece from Turkey, mostly via boats, during the worst
refugee crisis since the Second World War.
But a March 2016 deal between Ankara and the European Union helped staunch
the flow.
Arrivals on the Greek islands were 875,000 in 2015, dropping to under
40,000 per year in 2017 and 2018, according to EU border force Frontex.
Between January and June this year, 555 migrants died attempting to cross
the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The figure was 924 last year with a peak of 2,911 deaths recorded in 2016.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1811 hrs