ISTANBUL: Sixteen migrants and a people trafficker died when their inflatable dinghy capsized early on Friday in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the coastguard said.

It was the latest in a series of migrant deaths on the short but perilous route between the Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes, and Lesbos that serve as entry points to the European Union.

“The dead bodies of 16 illegal migrants and that of a trafficker have been recovered,” the coastguard stated, adding two migrants had been rescued.

The local governor’s office had earlier given a death toll of 14 migrants, stating on X that a migrant had managed to alert the coastguard to the emergency.

One of the two survivors, an Afghan, told rescuers that the vessel had sunk barely 10 minutes after starting to take on water.

He had been forced to swim for six hours to Celebi Island, he added.

Authorities did not give the nationalities of the other migrants.

Bodrum lies less than five kilometres (3 miles) from the Greek island of Kos.

According to the Missing Migrants Project run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,400 migrants have died trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea this year.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2025