22 Refugees Drown In Bid To Reach Turkey

At least 22 refugees, including four children, have drowned after a 20-meter wooden boat sank off Turkey’s coast. Amir Cicek, Governor of Bodrum said on Tuesday that a total of 249 refugees were rescued, he added that the boat had a capacity of 50 – 60 people, but was carrying 271 people on board.
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. The governor of Turkey’s North-Western province of Edirne said nearly 7,000 asylum- seekers in the past week have been caught and turned back as they headed toward the country’s western borders with Greece and Bulgaria. In Istanbul, hundreds of people trying to reach Europe have gathered at a central bus station, hoping to travel north. The group said they had been waiting for hours on Tuesday and would walk about 300-km to the Greek border if they were unable to board buses headed there. Refugees said they were planning to stage a sit- in protest near the border with Greece hoping authorities would allow them to cross into Europe overland. Turkey hosts some two million refugees.