Migrant Boat Sinks off Türkiye’s Coast, Killing at Least 22 People

Migrants are helped evacuate a partially deflated rubber dinghy by the rescue personnel of the SOS Mediterranee humanitarian ship Ocean Viking in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP, HO)
Migrants are helped evacuate a partially deflated rubber dinghy by the rescue personnel of the SOS Mediterranee humanitarian ship Ocean Viking in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP, HO)
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Migrant Boat Sinks off Türkiye’s Coast, Killing at Least 22 People

Migrants are helped evacuate a partially deflated rubber dinghy by the rescue personnel of the SOS Mediterranee humanitarian ship Ocean Viking in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP, HO)
Migrants are helped evacuate a partially deflated rubber dinghy by the rescue personnel of the SOS Mediterranee humanitarian ship Ocean Viking in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP, HO)

A rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank off Türkiye’s northern Aegean coast on Friday, killing at least 22 people, officials said.

Turkish coast guard personnel rescued two migrants from the sea off the town of Eceabat in Canakkale province, while two others reached the shore by themselves and notified officials, Gov. Ilhami Aktas said.

It was not clear how many people were on the boat when it sank and the coast guard was continuing to search the area, he said.

Aktas told the state-run Anadolu Agency that seven of the dead were infants or children.

The migrants’ nationalities were not immediately known.

They were trying to reach the Greek island of Samothraki, the private Demiroren News Agency reported.

Eighteen rescue boats, a plane, two helicopters and a drone were involved in the search and rescue mission, the statement said. Ambulances were on standby at a nearby port, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Although their numbers have declined in recent years, migrants mostly from the Middle East and Africa often leave Türkiye to try to reach Greece in search of a better life in European countries. Some migrants leaving Türkiye also attempt to sail to Italy.

The Turkish coast guard said it caught at least 93 migrants attempting to leave the Turkish coast on boats this week.



Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
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Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament's impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office, his lawyer said on Thursday.
"So if the decision is 'removal', it cannot but be accepted," Yoon Kab-keun, the lawyer for Yoon, told a news conference, when asked if Yoon would accept whatever the outcome of trial was.
Yoon has earlier defied the court's requests to submit legal briefs before the court began its hearing on Dec. 27, but his lawyers have said he was willing to appear in person to argue his case.
The suspended president has defied repeated summons in a separate criminal investigation into allegations he masterminded insurrection with his Dec. 3 martial law bid.
Yoon, the lawyer, said the president is currently at his official residence and appeared healthy, amid speculation over the suspended leader's whereabouts.
Presidential security guards resisted an initial effort to arrest Yoon last week though he faces another attempt after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the embattled leader.
Seok Dong-hyeon, another lawyer advising Yoon, said Yoon viewed the attempts to arrest him as politically motivated and aimed at humiliating him by bringing him out in public wearing handcuffs.