An 18-month-old Syrian boy who was found dead at sea yesterday became the latest casualty in the migrant crisis. The baby's body was discovered off Turkey's Aegean shore near an overcrowded dinghy that was carrying illegal migrants who were trying to make the ambitious yet deadly journey to reach Europe.
The Turkish Coast Guard were patrolling the Aegean Sea off İzmir province yesterday when they found the lifeless body of 18-month-old Revan Hassun while intercepting a nearby dinghy boat which was carrying undocumented migrants. Migrants were among hundreds who try to make it to Europe in search of better lives. Boy's body was transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute in İzmir for an autopsy. The coast guard also intercepted 76 undocumented migrants en route to Greece on a boat off İzmir's Dikili district. Seventy-four of the held migrants were Syrian nationals, including children, while the remaining two were citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Currently, Turkish gendarmerie forces are holding 65 foreign nationals suspected of irregular migration in Dikili district. Fifty-two Syrians, nine Afghans and four Angolans are among the suspects, who have been transferred to migration management authorities.
Turkey is a main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria. The country is both a transit and final destination for migrants, particularly from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Congo, Bangladesh, Somalia and the Palestinian territories.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have tried to make the short but perilous journey across the Aegean Sea to reach northern and western Europe. Although the Turkish Coast Guard has rescued thousands of people, a countless number of refugees have died trying to undertake the treacherous voyage. Since the beginning of 2017, at least 51 people have lost their lives in the dangerous sea journeys.
In March 2016, Turkey and the EU signed a deal to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving the conditions of some 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Since then, the number of refugees detained crossing the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece has fallen 85 percent, according to the Turkish Coast Guard. Still, a small number of migrants continue to risk their lives on a daily basis to reach Greece, while EU countries bicker over quotas on the number of migrants each supposedly should take and the burden of hosting refugees.
At the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, more than 857,000 migrants reached Greece from Turkey. The highest number of migrants intercepted by the Coast Guard was in September this year when authorities caught a total of 3,408 migrants offshore. Over the past seven years, the country has intercepted more than 640,000 irregular migrants.