Turkey: Boat carrying up to 60 refugees sinks in Lake Van | Turkey News

A boat that sank on Lake Van in jap Turkey is thought to have been carrying up to 60 refugees and migrants when it went down in stormy weather conditions, Inside Minister Suleyman Soylu stated.

Talking to reporters in Van province on Wednesday, Soylu mentioned authorities detained 11 folks in relationship with the incident, which the provincial governor’s business office explained took area late on Saturday.

Look for and rescue functions continue, he mentioned, incorporating that six bodies have been recovered so much. He mentioned a complete of 11 other folks had been detained in relationship with the tragedy.

“The data the interior minister has is dependent on the testimonies of witnesses,” stated Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul.

She said the head of a nearby village claimed the sinking of the boat to the police, and the search for the sunken vessel is nonetheless below way.

Community officers explained to Koseoglu that several traffickers who claimed to be on the boat when it sank gave their testimonies to the area authorities.

In accordance to them, the boat, which experienced a ability of 20, was overloaded and sank soon after it travelled just about 8km (5 miles) in lake waters.

The lake is near the border with Iran, from in which refugees consistently cross into Turkey, heading west in direction of Europe.

Not the initially incident

Haberturk television claimed the refugees and migrants in the boat were believed to be from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

In December, 7 men and women had died, and 64 were rescued when a boat carrying refugees and migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan sank on Lake Van.

A lot more than a million individuals attained Greece from Turkey in 2015 and 2016, even though the figures dropped sharply under a 2016 agreement amongst the European Union and Turkey on Ankara using back refugees in return for resources.

Before this yr, tens of countless numbers of refugees experimented with to cross into Greece via land and sea borders after Ankara claimed it would no for a longer period prevent them.

Turkey, dwelling to 3.6 million Syrians, the world’s largest refugee populace, had mentioned it would open the frontier for the reason that it was alarmed by the prospect of another wave of refugees fleeing war in northwest Syria.

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Al Jazeera and information agencies