Turkish coast guard recovers 5 migrant bodies after shipwreck, nearly a dozen feared missing: officials

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The Turkish Coast Guard recovered the bodies of five migrants whose dinghy packed with 31 passengers was shipwrecked Saturday morning off the coast of Turkey, officials said.

Turkish authorities rescued 11 others from a partially submerged boat, while the Greece Coast Guard found five migrants safely on Farmakonisi island in the Aegean Sea, the United Nations Refugee Agency said.

Turkey’s coast guard responded to the area after learning a vessel was taking on water just before 6:30 a.m. local time, Reuters reported. A child was among the 11 rescued from the “half-sunken dinghy” in Turkish waters, authorities said.

Those rescued told authorities that the dinghy was carrying 31 passengers, according to the outlet.

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The search for the remaining passengers continued Sunday as rescuers battled harsh weather conditions.

Greece’s Hellenic Coast Guard said Turkish authorities recovered five bodies in the Aegean Sea and rescued 11 others aboard a partially submerged vessel. Greek authorities rescued five migrants on a nearby island, while the remaining passengers are missing. (Hellenic Coast Guard)

Farmakonisi is located about 12 miles off the coast of Didim, a small coastal town in southwest Turkey.

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The latest migrant shipwreck comes two weeks after a wooden boat that sailed from Turkey ran into a sandbank in rough seas off a beach in Calabria, the toe of the Italian peninsula. At least 79 migrants died, while 80 others survived and an undetermined number remain missing and presumed dead.

Police check a fishing boat with some 500 migrants in the southern Italian port of Crotone early Saturday. The Italian coast guard was responding to three smugglers boats carrying more than 1,300 migrants “in danger” off Italy’s southern coast. (AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro)

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Meanwhile, more than 1,300 migrants have been rescued since Friday in three separate missions in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern tip of Italy, Italian officials said.