Turkish boat disaster reveals new route for migrants

Thomas Seibert

Nov 6, 2014

Rescuers retrieve a boat that sank off the Black Sea village of Garipce near Istanbul November 3, 2014. Rescuers pulled 24 dead bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul's Bosphorus strait on Monday and rescued seven people after the boat carrying a group of migrants sank, the Turkish Coastguard Command said. Seven coastguard vessels and a helicopter were continuing search operations in the Black Sea, some 3 miles (5 km) north of the Bosphorus, the coastguard said in a statement. Media reports said some — Rescuers retrieve a boat that sank off the Black Sea village of Garipce, near Istanbul, Nov. 3, 2014. — REUTERS/Osman Orsal

ISTANBUL — At least 25 migrants from Afghanistan died this week when the boat carrying them to Romania capsized in the Black Sea near Istanbul. The case illustrated the emergence of a new route that smugglers use to take migrants via Turkey into the European Union.

The boat Torun carried 43 Afghan migrants and a Turkish captain when it sank roughly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the Bosporus in the early hours of Nov. 3. Six people survived, while 12 were still unaccounted for. Turkish news reports say migrants paid 7,000 euros ($8,700) each for the journey that started in Bakirkoy, a district of Istanbul on the European shore of the Sea of Marmara.