Thirty-one illegal immigrants drowned when their boat sank on the weekend in the Aegean Sea off western Turkey while trying to reach Greece, a local official said on Monday.
An earlier death toll had stood at 20 people.
Six other immigrants were rescued overnight off the town of Seferihisar near the city of Izmir, the town’s top administrative official, Orhan Sefik Guldibi told the NTV news channel.
”The survivors told us there were 60 to 70 people on board the vessel, which set out late Saturday,” Guldibi said.
The 15m vessel was believed to have sunk because of poor weather conditions and because it was overloaded with passengers, he said.
The Turkish coast guard had launched a sea and land search, but their efforts were being hampered by rough weather.
Guldibi said that two of the survivors were Palestinians, but added that the nationalities of the rest of the immigrants had not yet been established.
Turkey lies on a major human-smuggling route from Asia to Europe and illegal immigrants are detained on an almost daily basis.
The immigrants mostly try to cross to Greece by land, or brave sea journeys to Greece or Italy, often aboard unseaworthy vessels. — AFP
