Migrants Die After Boat Capsizes North of Bosporus Off Turkey

ISTANBUL — A boat carrying 43 migrants to the European Union from the Middle East capsized north of the Bosporus in the Black Sea on Monday, killing at least 24 people, the Turkish Coast Guard said.

Workers in Istanbul carried away the bodies of migrants who drowned after their boat capsized in the Black Sea on Monday

The coast guard sent seven vessels and a helicopter on an extensive rescue mission in the early hours of Monday, saving at least seven people, the authorities said.

“It is not clear whether the boat passed through the Bosporus Strait itself,” said Col. Sakir Cicek, a spokesman for the Turkish military’s general staff command in the capital, Ankara. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of the Marmara.

“The Black Sea is normally used by migrants trying to reach Bulgaria and Romania, but is a less commonly used route than the western Aegean coast,” he added.

The Turkish Coast Guard rescued migrants trying to reach Europe from Syria two months ago after their boat sank off the northern shore of Istanbul.

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Since the start of Syria’s civil war over three years ago, thousands of migrants have risked their lives trying to cross Turkish waters in small boats in an attempt to reach Europe. About 61 migrants died two years ago while trying to reach Greece by the Aegean Sea on the western coast of Turkey.

The boats, about 25 feet long, “look like a regular fisherman’s boat, except they are packed full of people,” Colonel Cicek said.

“It is because they travel so overcapacity that there are so many accidents of this nature around Turkey,” he continued.

Hundreds of fishermen joined the coast guard’s rescue mission on Monday, which became more challenging as winds picked up throughout the day.

“This morning, we saw corpses floating in the water, but now the wind has picked up, and it has become more difficult to find the remaining bodies,” Erdem Cubukcu, a fisherman, said by phone.

“The coast guard have sent in divers now, so hopefully they will make more progress before dark,” he added.