Seven people on board when a life raft carrying migrants were killed when it crashed into rocks off Turkey’s Aegean coastal town of Cesme on Tuesday, the Turkish coastguard said.
A fishing boat that rescued one person from the sea alerted the coast guard. Eighteen others, including children, were rescued from the small island of Karaada near Cesme.
Meanwhile, the coast guard disclosed that rescue efforts were continuing for one missing person, and noted that the survivors told them they were put in a life raft and left to drift by Greek authorities at a location close to Turkish territorial waters. It said the raft then struck rocks and sank.
Turkey regularly accuses Greece of engaging in “pushbacks,” or summary deportations of migrants without access to asylum procedures required by international law. Greece denies sending newly arrived migrants back to Turkey.
Greece serves as a major entry point for migrants seeking a better life in the European Union, most entering illegally from Turkey aboard precarious boats supplied by traffickers.
A video shared by Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on the social media platform X showed a coast guard boat rescuing migrants, including children, from the island.
The rescued migrants were in good health, according to the coast guard statement.
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