Over 10 Refugees Drown Off Turkey
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – At least ten refugees, including five children, drowned Saturday when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece, the Turkish coastguard said.
An unknown number of people were still missing after the latest in a long list of refugee boat sinkings in the Mediterranean.
So far, 43 passengers had been rescued, the report added.
"We are sad. At least 20 friends are still missing," one weeping survivor told an AFP photographer at the scene.
The refugees, who included Syrian and Afghan nationals, had set off from the district of Ayvacik in Canakkale province in an apparent bid to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
Turkey has become the main launchpad for refugees fleeing war, persecution and poverty to Europe.
The Turkish government struck a deal with the EU in November to halt the outflow of refugees, in return for 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in financial assistance.
Neither the deal nor the winter conditions appear to have deterred the refugees, who continue to pay people smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing in overloaded boats.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this week 45,361 refugees had arrived in Greece by sea so far this year, 31 times more than for all of January 2015.
Some 90 percent of the new arrivals were from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, it added.
