ISTANBUL: At least 14 migrants have died after their inflatable boat capsized in the Aegean Sea near the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, the Muğla governor’s office announced on Friday. The death toll was revised upward from an earlier report of seven fatalities.
According to a statement by the governor’s office on X, the Turkish Coast Guard was alerted to the incident in the early hours of Friday morning.
Two survivors were rescued, one of whom reported that the boat had been carrying 18 people when it began taking on water and sank within just 10 minutes. One survivor managed to swim to nearby Çelebi Island.
Officials said one of the survivors was an Afghan national, but did not specify the nationalities of the others on board.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing, with four coast guard vessels, a helicopter, and a specialised diving team deployed to locate the two migrants who remain missing.
Migrant boats often get lost along the short but treacherous route between Turkey’s coastline and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes, and Lesbos serve key entry points into the European Union. Bodrum, where the latest tragedy occurred, lies just across from the Greek island of Kos.
According to the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project, nearly 1,400 people have lost their lives this year while attempting to reach Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.
