No fewer than twenty-two migrants have lost their lives after a boat capsized off the Turkish coast on Friday, March 15.
It was gathered that the Turkish coastguard teams managed to rescue two individuals, while two others were able to reach safety on their own.
The incident occurred near Gokceada, Turkey’s largest island, situated in the Aegean Sea in the northwestern province of Canakkale.
In a statement, the local governor’s office announced that the Turkish coastguard recovered twenty-two bodies of the victims, including those of seven children.
Meanwhile, Turkey, currently hosting nearly four million refugees, primarily Syrians, witnesses numerous migrants attempting to reach the Greek islands from its western coasts, often with tragic consequences at sea.
Reports indicated that the boat started to sink overnight, prompting a swift response from emergency services.
Recent weeks have seen a surge in attempts by migrants to cross from Turkey to Greece by sea, with the coastguard intercepting several hundred migrants, including children, since the week began.
According to preliminary data from the EU border agency Frontex, irregular border crossings into the European Union in the first two months of the year reached 31,200, comparable to the previous year’s level.
In the eastern Mediterranean, the number of detections more than doubled to 9,150 during the same period.
The Mediterranean Sea remains a focal point for migrant flows from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, with the peak influx occurring in 2015 amid the Syrian civil war.
Turkey and the EU reached an agreement in 2016 to reduce arrivals to the EU in exchange for financial aid and other incentives.
The issue of illegal migration continues to strain relations between NATO allies Turkey and Greece, compounded by disputes ranging from territorial rights to migrant management strategies.
Efforts to address migration challenges through dialogue and cooperation were reaffirmed during talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in December, with further discussions expected during Mitsotakis’ upcoming visit to Ankara in May.
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