REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ISTANBUL -- Turkish authorities on Tuesday found the bodies of at least 21 migrants, including several children, washed up on beaches and floating in the sea off its western coast after their boats sank while crossing the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.
The tragedies, the deadliest so far reported in the Aegean in 2016, come as the EU seeks to push Turkey to halt the flow of migrants across its borders in exchange for financial help.
Twenty-two migrants seeking to reach the Greek island of Lesbos set out before dawn aboard a rubber boat but it capsized in bad weather and high seas, the Dogan news agency reported.
The bodies of fourteen people were found either washed up on the beach near the resort of Ayvalik or in the sea nearby, Dogan said. Eight more migrants were rescued.
Among those found dead was a woman who was six months pregnant.
Images published by Dogan showed the small corpses of children, fully dressed and wearing shoes, lying on the beach with their life-jackets still on.
Video footage showed Turkish security forces lifting other bodies from the waves in the shallows on the shore.
In a second disaster, seven migrants were found dead off the resort of Dikili just to the south, it added. The victims there also included women and children, Dogan said.
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