November 12, 2018•Update: November 13, 2018
By Ali Korkmaz and Halil Sahin
IZMIR, Turkey
At least five irregular migrants died Monday when a boat sank off the coast of Dikili district in Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir, according to the coast guard sources.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said two irregular migrants claimed their boat sank early Monday and they swam to the coast.
The migrants also said 13 others who were on the boat were missing.
The coast guard started a search and rescue operation over the incident, the sources added.
Later on Monday, the dead bodies of five irregular migrants, including three children, were recovered from the sea while other three were rescued, sources said.
The sources added that the operations are ongoing to find the missing five migrants.
Dikili district governor Alper Faruk Gungor told Anadolu Agency that the rescued migrants are free of death risk.
Out of 15 migrants, 14 of them were Afghan nationals, while the other is Iranian, the sources said, adding among the migrants were three children.
On Oct. 15, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that 80,000 Afghan irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018 and the number stood at 45,000 for the whole year of 2017.
The population of Afghanistan is around 35 million people.
