14 migrants drown off Turkey coast
A boat carrying migrants capsized in the Aegean Sea near Turkey’s Mugla province on Friday, killing at least 14 people. An Afghan survivor swam to shore and alerted authorities around 1 a.m. after the rubber vessel took on water and sank with 18 people aboard. Rescue teams pulled 14 bodies from the sea and found a second survivor on Celebi Island near Bodrum. Coast guard boats, divers and a helicopter continued searching for four missing passengers.
Turkey serves as a major transit point for migrants traveling from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe. The country shelters millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkish authorities detained nearly 455,000 unauthorized migrants in 2019, the highest annual total on record. More than 122,000 people have been apprehended through mid-October this year.
