Immigrants drown trying to reach Greece
ANKARA (AFP) – Three people drowned and an estimated 10 others were missing yesterday after a small boat transporting illegal immigrants to Greece sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast, local officials said. Nine immigrants were rescued by fishermen from the Narli village near the town of Edremit after the Turkish fishing boat carrying them – apparently to a nearby Greek island – sank in bad weather early yesterday, an official from the local paramilitary police told AFP. Survivors told authorities that 22 people, among them Afghans, Palestinians and Sudanese, were aboard the vessel, he said, adding that the coast guard launched a search-and-rescue operation. [Some 200 immigrants were arrested in Greece last week after illegally entering the country from Turkey, mostly by boat.]
