Bodies found on Bodrum beaches

Officials noted that they might have been trying to get to the Greek island of Kos by boat. Hanefi Demir, a villager who found one of the bodies, said there was a fierce storm in the area on Tuesday night. Prosecutors have initiated an investigation into the incident. The bodies of the migrants will be sent to the İzmir Forensic Medical Institution.

As a major transit route for migrants, such tragic incidents are not uncommon in Turkey. Last October, 18 migrants died after suffocating in a truck after a traffic accident in Tekirdağ province. The migrants were left alone in the vehicle when the driver fled the scene of the accident.

Autopsies carried out on the 18 victims revealed that they died of asphyxiation. In another incident last December, over 50 people aboard a boat carrying at least 85 would-be illegal migrants drowned when the vessel sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast, in Seferihisar near İzmir.

Some 230 illegal migrants died in Turkish territorial waters in the Aegean or in Turkish territory in 2007, according to a report prepared by the Turkish Coast Guard and the Gendarmerie General Command. In the same period, there was a 300 percent rise in the number of people from developing countries trying to reach Europe, mostly due to wars and instability in their home countries. Zaman reported online on 28th Jan 09. To find out more please visit Todays Zaman

Be Sociable in Bodrum, Share Gumbet Bodrum News!

• 

Category: BODRUM