5 die as migrant boat sinks off Turkish coast

By Zafer Akpinar

BALIKESIR, Turkey

Five refugees drowned off Turkey’s Aegean Sea coast after their boat sank, Turkish official said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Namik Kemal Nazli, the governor of the Ayvalik district of Balikesir province in western Turkey, said eight people were rescued out of the 13 on the boat when it sank near Maden Island.

“Four children and a woman died and eight others were rescued. There is three-year-old child among the rescued,” he said.

He added that the child was in critical condition at Ayvalik State Hospital.

Over the past years, thousands have made short but perilous journeys across the Aegean in a bid to reach northern and Western Europe in search for a better life.

Of the 4,715 migrants and refugees who lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, 429 migrants died in the Eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece, according to the latest report.

More than a million refugees and migrants traveled from Turkey to Greece last year before a EU-Turkey deal stemmed the flow in March.

The March 18 agreement allows for the return of “irregular migrants” to Turkey from Greece in exchange for Syrian refugees to be relocated within the EU.