More than 30 migrants die off Turkish coast as their boat capsizes

AYVACIK, TURKEY, Saturday

At least 33 migrants, including two babies, drowned when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.

Several others were still missing after the latest tragedy in another deadly week for migrants fleeing war and misery across the Mediterranean to Europe, during which dozens have drowned.

The migrants, who included Syrian and Afghan refugees, set sail from the shores of Canakkale province in an apparent bid to reach the nearby Greek island of Lesbos when their boat ran into trouble.

An AFP photographer saw the body of a baby, still fully clothed, among those found washed up on a pebble beach near the town of Ayvacik, and said another baby was found dead in the water.

The photographer counted a total of 33 victims, several of them children.

Earlier a coastguard official confirmed a death toll of at least 10 but after that the photographer counted more bodies.

“We are sad. Several friends are still missing,” a woman who was among the survivors said, weeping.

Most of those found alive were women and children.

The capsized boat was visible around 50 metres from the shore, where divers from the coastguard were still searching for the missing. Some residents were also helping in the rescue mission.

Some of the bodies were put in bags and taken to a morgue. Life jackets and other refugees’ belongings were dotted around the beach.

The deaths come two days after 25 migrants, including 10 children, died off the Greek island of Samos, continuing a grisly trend that accelerated last year when nearly 4,000 people died trying to reach Europe by sea, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Turkey, hosting 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has become the main launchpad for migrants to Europe.