REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ANKARA -- 18 people, including six children, have drowned after a boat carrying asylum seekers sank off Turkey's coast. The wood boat capsized in high waves as it tried to cross from Turkey's Izmir province to the Greek island of Lesbos.
The Turkish coastguard rescued 21 people, including a one-year-old baby, as reported in ABC. At least 24 people have died in two similar sinkings this week.
The number of asylum seekers arriving by land and sea in the European Union has passed 1 million this year, with almost 3,700 dying or going missing during the dangerous journey, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday (22/12).
The drowning of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi off Turkey in September sparked international efforts to support Syrian refugees — but since his death numerous children have continued to drown on the same route.
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