MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the online Haberler portal, the wooden boat carrying migrants from Pakistan, Iraq and Syria capsized late Friday about 2 miles off the coast.
The rescued people were sent to a local hospital.
Turkey is a key transit country for thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Nearly 2.2 million Syrian refugees are temporarily living in Turkey, many of whom seek to travel further to Europe.
On November 29, the European Union and Turkey approved a joint plan to counter excessive migration into the bloc, under which EU member states will give some 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) to Ankara and fast track negotiations for its accession to the bloc.
