Thirty-nine people, including five children, have died in the Aegean Sea after an overcrowded boat carrying Greece-bound migrants capsized near the western Turkish coast Saturday.
The Turkish coast guards said that it had rescued 75 people from the sea. The capsized boat was carrying more than 100 refugees from Syria, Myanmar and Afghanistan to the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey's western province of Canakkale, according to Anadolu.
A suspected people smuggler was among the rescued. However, he denied any wrong doing.
"I had six relatives and I don't even know whether they are dead or alive. I was also on that boat. I swear I didn't do anything. I came here to go Germany," he told Reuters.
More than 45,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece by sea since the start of 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this week, according to DW.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has criticized European leadership for its poor handling of the migrant crisis.
"I feel shamed as a member of this European leadership, both for the inability of Europe in dealing with this human drama, and for the level of debate at a senior level, where one is passing the buck to the other. These are hypocritical, crocodile tears which are being shed for the dead children on the shores of the Aegean," Tsipras said in his parliamentary speech few months back, as HNGN previously reported.
