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Five dead as migrant boat capsizes off Turkey: report
ANKARA, Turkey, Sept 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Five people died after a boat
carrying illegal migrants capsized off Turkey’s northwestern coast on Sunday,
state media reported.
The Turkish coastguard found the bodies after the rubber vessel sank off
the Enez district in Edirne province, Anadolu news agency said.
Fearing the numbers on board could be higher, the coastguard continued
search and rescue efforts, the agency added.
The cause of the incident was not yet known but a Mediterranean storm is
battering Greece and brought heavy rain and wind to Turkey’s Aegean cities.
The agency did not give details of the migrants’ nationalities however
Turkey hosts over three million Syrian refugees and up to 300,000 Iraqis.
It is also one of the transit countries used by those fleeing war and
poverty to try and reach Europe.
The flow of refugees into Europe has slowed since the influx hit a peak in
2015 when over a million people landed in Greece from Turkey, the majority
via boats.
BSS/AFP/RY/1841 hrs