Some 22 Refugees Drown As Wooden Boat Sinks Off Turkey Coast

Refugees drownKABUL: (Middle East Press) At least 22 asylum seekers including four children and 11 women have lost their lives as their wooden boat overturned in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish coast.

Amir Cicek, governor of Bodrum, said on Tuesday that a total of 249 refugees were rescued.

“Twenty-two migrants remained under the boat and drowned. Search and rescue work has been completed,” he said.

The 20 meter wooden boat carrying some 271 refugees – almost five times more than its capacity – had set off from the resort town of Datça overnight but went down on Tuesday morning about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) off the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, in international waters between Datça in Turkey and the Greek island of Kos, where tens of thousands of other refugees have arrived in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the global aid charity Save the Children urged Spain to help hundreds of Syrian refugee children reach Spanish soil in North Africa.

The nationalities of the deceased were not immediately identified.

The incident comes two days after 34 refugees, including 15 children, drowned off the Greek island of Farmakonissi when the wooden boat they were on sank. Nearly 100 other people were rescued.

“More than 500,000 migrants were detected at EU borders in the first eight months of this year after a fifth consecutive monthly record was registered in August when 156,000 crossed the EU borders,” a Frontex statement said.

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