Migrants Crisis: 17 People Drown After Boat Sinks Off Turkish Coast

Seventeen migrants attempting to reach Greece by boat from Turkey have drowned after their boat sank off Turkey. The victims, all thought to be Syrians, included five women and five children, local media said.

Another 20 people on the boat’s deck, who were wearing life jackets, survived, the news agency said. Some 300,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece so far this year, most of them moving on to try to reach other EU countries. Those arriving in Greece have mostly set off from Turkey’s Aegean coast, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Those who drowned on Sunday were trapped in the boat’s cabin as it sank, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported. The boat is thought to have set out from the village of Gumusluk near the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, where three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi died earlier this month.