Up to 60 migrants feared dead in Turkish lake after boat sinks

Up to 60 migrants may have been trapped in a boat that sank in an eastern lake last week, Turkey’s interior minister said Wednesday.

Turkey launched a searchand-rescue mission involving helicopters and boats after the boat carrying migrants across

Lake Van was reported missing on June 27. So far, search teams have recovered six bodies.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who travelled to Van to oversee the rescue operation, told reporters Wednesday that authorities estimated the boat was carrying between 55 and 60 migrants when it went down in stormy weather.

Eleven other people were detained in connection with the tragedy, he said. A village administrator has been removed from office for delaying reporting the incident, he added.

Soylu said experts think the sunken boat is under 110-120 metres of water. An underwater imaging system was dispatched from Ankara to locate the wreck, he added.

HaberTurk television said the migrants are believed to be from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

The lake is situated along a major transit route for migrants coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. They are typically smuggled across mountains on the Iran

Turkey border and then continue travelling on through Turkey.

However, Turkish authorities have intensified immigration controls near the Iranian border, and some smugglers transport migrants across Lake Van to avoid several police and military checkpoints between the provinces of Van and Bitlis.