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.



China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Chinese health authorities said on Thursday they had detected the new mutated mpox strain clade Ib as the viral infection spreads to more countries after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last year.
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters reported.
Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients' symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Although usually mild, it can be fatal in rare cases.
WHO last August declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries.
The outbreak in DRC began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. But the clade Ib variant appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The variant has spread from DRC to neighboring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, triggering the emergency declaration from the WHO.
China said in August last year it would monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox.
The country's National Health Commission said mpox would be managed as a Category B infectious disease, enabling officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school, and sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease.