A life raft carrying migrants crashed into rocks off Turkey’s Aegean coastal city of Cesme on Tuesday, killing seven individuals on board, the Turkish coastguard stated.

One individual was rescued from the ocean by a fishing boat which then alerted the coast guard. Eighteen others, together with youngsters, had been rescued from the small island of Karaada close to Cesme.

Search and rescue efforts had been persevering with for one lacking individual, the coast guard stated in an announcement.

The coast guard stated the survivors instructed them they had been put in a life raft and left to float by Greek authorities at a location near Turkish territorial waters. It stated the raft then struck rocks and sank.

Turkey often accuses Greece of engaging in “pushbacks,” or abstract deportations of migrants with out entry to asylum procedures required by worldwide regulation. Greece denies sending newly arrived migrants again to Turkey.

Greece serves as a serious entry level for migrants looking for a greater life within the European Union, most getting into illegally from Turkey aboard precarious boats provided by traffickers.

A video shared by Turkish Inside Minister Ali Yerlikaya on the social media platform X confirmed a coast guard boat rescuing migrants, together with youngsters, from the island.

The rescued migrants had been in good well being, in line with the coast guard assertion.

Extra sources • AP

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