Istanbul: Five Syrian migrants were found dead today after their boat sank en route from Turkey to EU waters, the latest tragedy off the Turkish coast, reports said.
Eight migrants were rescued from the boat, which was carrying 15 people from Syria and Iraq, the official Anatolia news agency said, with rescue efforts continuing to find the remaining missing.
The migrants had been seeking to reach the Greek island of Kos from the Turkish resort of Bodrum but their boat ran into difficulty and the coastguard was mobilised following a tip-off.
The dead migrants were all Syrians, the Dogan news agency reported.
In a separate incident in the same province of Mugla on the Aegean coast, 47 migrants were rescued by the coastguard from another boat heading towards Kos, Anatolia said.
Turkey, which is already sheltering 1.7 million refugees from the Syrian civil war, has become a key transit point for migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
Many pay people smugglers thousands of dollars to travel towards EU states in small boats, but the journey is fraught with danger.
Thirty-seven migrants, believed mainly to be of Afghan origin, lost their lives in November when their overloaded boat sank in the Black Sea off Istanbul.
Smugglers in recent months have also been using large cargo ships to transport illegal immigrants towards the EU.
The Turkish coastguard opened fire last week to stop a cargo vessel carrying 337 mainly Syrian migrants in the Dardanelles strait.