Refugee boat sinks off north Cyprus, leaving 19 drowned, 30 missing

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At least 19 refugees have drowned, and up to 30 remain missing after a boat sank in the Mediterranean off the north coast of Cyprus on Wednesday, Turkish state media reports said.

The boat was carrying 150 people when it went down off the village of Yeni Erenkoy in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot-controlled portion of the island, which is only recognized by Ankara.

Over 100 people were rescued, in a joint operation, by Turkish Cypriot and Turkish coastguards after the boat sank off the village of Gialousa (Yeni Erenkoy in Turkish) on the Karpas peninsula, the reports added.

Search efforts were set in operations to recover the missing bodies with commercial vessels also taking part.

Turkey's DHA news agency said that the refugees were Syrians seeking to go to Europe but this has yet to be confirmed.

Cyprus, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Syria's coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey, Greece or Italy, although asylum applications have been rising sharply.

Turkey has however been one of the hubs for refugees fleeing Syria and other spots like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over a million people, many fleeing the war in Syria, crossed to European Union member Greece from Turkey in 2015 after the onset of the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.

(Cover: Refugees and migrants are seen swimming and yelling for assistance after a wooden boat bound for Italy carrying more than 500 people capsized off Lampedusa, Italy, May 24, 2017. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP