Turkey’s state-run news agency says a boat carrying migrants to a Greek island has sunk, killing five children and two adults on board.
Anadolu Agency says the boat sank off the Turkish resort of Cesme late on Thursday. Nine other people — four Iraqis, three Somalis and two Syrians — were rescued. One migrant was reported missing.
Anadolu said police are searching for a smuggler who left the boat as it started to sink.
Hundreds of people fleeing poverty and war continue to arrive in Greece each week, although the main migration route to the European Union has shifted, from the short trip between Turkey and the Greek islands to the much longer and more dangerous journey across the Mediterranean from north Africa to Italy.
More than 170 migrants and refugees have been rescued in search-and-rescue operations in the Aegean Sea in the past 24 hours, Greece’s coast guard said Friday.
Officials said the operations took place off Samos and Lesvos islands, which lie close to the coast of Turkey.
Nearly 11,000 refugees and migrants have crossed to Greece from Turkey this year, down from 173,000 in 2016 and just a fraction of the nearly 1 million arrivals in 2015.