By our Reporter,
MUGLA,
At least 14 people drowned after a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s western province of Mugla on Friday, authorities confirmed.
The Mugla Governor’s Office said an Afghan man who managed to swim back to the mainland reported the incident to emergency services. He told officials that 18 people had set out on the rubber boat before it began taking on water and sank shortly afterward.
Search and rescue teams later found a second survivor who had reached Celebi Island off the coast of Bodrum, the statement added. Fourteen bodies have so far been recovered from the sea, and operations continue to search for possible survivors.
The Aegean Sea remains a common route for migrants attempting to reach Europe from North Africa and the Middle East, with many departing from Turkey, which hosts millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
According to the Presidency of Migration Management, Turkey recorded nearly 455,000 irregular migrants in 2019, mostly from Afghanistan and Syria. As of October 16 this year, more than 122,000 have been apprehended across the country.
