Turkey searches coast for missing refugees

Rescuers pulled 21 bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul's Bosphorus strait on Monday and rescued seven people after the sinking of a boat carrying migrants, the Turkish Coastguard Command said.

The boat capsized while loaded with 42 passengers, including 12 children, seven women, and a Turkish captain, according to the Hurriyet news website.

"We saw dead bodies," said Emrecan Kolcu, one of the fishermen involved in the search and rescue operation. "It was not possible not to see them anyway; everywhere was full of dead bodies."

A further 12 passengers were believed to be missing, Turkish authorities said.

Colonel Sakir Cicek of the Turkish military's general staff command said the people on board were believed to be from Afghanistan and Syria.

Boat too small?

Bodies covered in blankets were laid on a jetty on Istanbul's Bosphorus strait, an eyewitness told Reuters news agency.

"They had life jackets. Babies, children... We pulled out 15-20 bodies," another fishmeran, identified as Kadir Sert, was quoted by Turkish media as saying.

While speculation pointed to the likelihood of overcrowding having caused the sinking, authorities had not ruled out bad weather conditions or even a collision with another vessel.

"The boat was very, very small, not enough for 40 people," a captain involved in the rescue efforts, Ali Saruhan, told CNN-Turk television.

NTV television reported that migrants had paid people smugglers 7,000 euros ($8,750) for passage to Romania, where they could begin their journey by land to western Europe.

Britain rejects EU search and rescue operations

The accident occurred just days after the EU launched a search and rescue operation off of the Italian coast, where at least 100,000 migrants were brought safely to shore over the past year.

Rome had spent more than 100,000 million euros on its own operation, dubbed "Mare Nostrum," which it phased out on Friday to make way for the EU mission.

The drowning of so many refugees has sparked a strong debate within the EU about whether to continue migrant rescue missions, with critics arguing that massive rescue operations only encourage the migrants to continue making the dangerous voyage.

dj/kms (AP, AFP, Reuters)