Capsized Migrant Boat Near Turkish Izmir Leaves 18 Dead

A boat transporting refugees capsized off the Turkish coast before sinking, leaving 18 people dead, including six children, local media reported Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Turkish Dogan News Agency (DHA) reported that a wooden boat, traveling in the direction of the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday, capsized two miles away from the village of Bademli in the Turkish province of Izmir.

Coast guard teams saved 21 people, including a baby, and continue searching for two other missing migrants, according to the agency.

Turkey is one of the key transit points for people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety and refuge in Europe.

Some 972,500 asylum seekers entered Europe via the dangerous Mediterranean Sea route, according to the recent joint report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The same report claimed that, of that number, at least 800,000 refugees and migrants had arrived in Greece from Turkey via the Aegean Sea.

The European Union offered Turkey 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in aid to stem the massive flow of migrants into the bloc, while some EU members have closed their borders to refugees. The EU border agency Frontex has detected 1.55 million illegal border crossings since the beginning of 2015.