Three people in Turkey have been remanded after a boat carrying migrants sank on Lake Van in the east of the country, Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency reports on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2020) Three people in Turkey have been remanded after a boat carrying migrants sank on Lake Van in the east of the country, Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency reports on Friday.
According to the agency, a boat carrying approximately 60 migrants sank on June 28. As of Wednesday, six bodies have been recovered, the agency cited Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as saying.
In total, 11 people were arrested on human smuggling charges, and three have been remanded, the agency said.
Since the start of the year, 21,000 migrants have arrived in the eastern Turkish city of Van, Soylu said on Wednesday, as reported by the agency. The number of migrants crossing Turkey has dropped as a result of the coronavirus disease crisis, the agency stated.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Turkey is currently hosting as many as 3.6 million Syrian refugees and roughly 330,000 asylum seekers of other nationalities. Many migrants and asylum seekers travel through Turkey hoping to eventually reach European Union member states.
As of June 28, 10,348 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Greece from Turkey, either traveling across land or by sea.
