At least 11 migrants killed in new Aegean tragedy off Turkey (2)

İstanbul, Mar 24 (DHA) – Eleven migrants drowned on Friday after a boat carrying 22 sank off the Kuşadası-Davutlar area of the Aegean province of İzmir.

Eight migrants were rescued while efforts to rescue the other missing three were continuing.

A number of ambulances were also dispatched to the coast.

The frequency of tragedies on the Aegean has diminished sharply since the implementation of a Turkey-European Union refugee deal in March 2016, but the agreement now hangs by a thread.

Turkey agreed in 2013 to take back migrants who traveled illegally to the EU in return for the promise of visa-free travel, as well as financial aid for those in its care and accelerated EU membership talks.

However, Ankara may cancel the agreement and is also re-evaluating a $6 billion refugee deal with the bloc, Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said March 15.

More feared dead off Libya Separately, around 250 African migrants are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean after a charity’s rescue boat found five corpses and two partially submerged rubber dinghies off Libya, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Over 5000 people have been picked up by rescue boats since March 19, bringing the number brought to Italy since the start of 2017 to over 21000, a rise of more than half compared to the same period in previous years.

Aid groups say the accelerating exodus is being driven by worsening living conditions for migrants in Libya and by fears the sea route to Europe could soon be closed to traffickers.

Prior to the latest fatal incident, the U.N. refugee agency had estimated that some 440 migrants had died trying to make the crossing from Libya to Italy since the start of 2017.

That figure, also sharply up on previous years, is based on a combination of bodies recovered and testimonies from the survivors of shipwrecks.