ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Eighteen migrants—including seven children—drowned off Turkey's western coast of Canakkale on Wednesday when a boat carrying them to the Greek Island of Lesbos sank, AFP has reported.
Seven children were among the dead and the Turkish coast guard rescued 27 people, the Turkish Cihan News Agency reported, adding that it is not known why the boat sank and there was no immediate information on the nationalities of the dead.
The coast guard said it had recovered the bodies of 14 people from a boat heading from the western province of Canakkale to the Greek island of Lesbos when it crashed into rocks and took on water, AFP reported.
"The boat probably sank after hitting rocks. It was severely damaged and apparently started to take in water but they decided to go ahead anyway," Canakkale governor Hamza Erkal told Anatolia news agency.
"Must there be another [Alan] for the world to wake up? Humanity is watching from the sidelines," AFP quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on hearing of the latest tragedy. Erdogan was referring to the drowning death of 3-year-old Syrian Kurd Alan Kurdi in September. An iconic picture of Kurdi’s lifeless body on a Turkish beach raised international outrage.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that over 650,000 refugees fleeing conflicts in regions like Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea so far this year.
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