The Latest: Turkish coast guards rescue 15; child missing

By Associated Press 21 September 2019, 12:00AM

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the influx of migrants into Europe (all times local):

12:20 p.m.

Turkish coast guards have rescued 14 migrants and their Turkish smuggler after their rubber boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast while trying to reach Greece. A search-and-rescue mission is still underway to find a missing infant.

The Turkish Coast Guard said the boat went down Friday off Turkey's Aegean resort of Yalikavak, on the Bodrum peninsula.

A Coast Guard helicopter and four boats were dispatched to rescue the migrants in response to a distress call.

The migrants' nationalities were not released.

Hundreds of people continue to head to Greece from Turkey each week, despite a 2016 deal between Turkey and the European Union aiming to curb irregular migration. Most of the migrants hope to make their way to more prosperous European nations further north.

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8:30 a.m.

The International Organization for Migration says a Sudanese man died from a gunshot wound in Libya when a group of migrants resisted being sent to a detention center after they were returned to shore by the Libyan coast guard after a failed attempt to get to Europe.

The IOM says armed men fired into the air when several people in a group of 103 migrants tried to flee from their guards in Tripoli.

IOM staff witnessed Thursday's incident. They say the man was shot in the stomach. An IOM doctor treated him at the scene but he died two hours later in a local clinic.

Spokesman Leonard Doyle says shooting at "unarmed vulnerable civilians, men, women and children alike, is unacceptable under any circumstances and raises alarms over the safety of migrants and humanitarian staff."

By Associated Press 21 September 2019, 12:00AM
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