At least 22 die as refugee boat capsizes off Turkish coast

At least 22 refugees, including four children, died Tuesday morning when their boat sank off the coast of southwestern Turkey as they were trying to reach the Greek island of Kos, the Turkish news agency Dogan reported.

The Turkish coastguard managed to rescue 211 people, Dogan said, adding that a rescue operation to find other survivors was still in progress. The boat had set out from the Turkish resort town of Datca.

The incident is the latest in a string of deaths of predominantly Syrian refugees who have drowned in an effort to reach Europe by sea. At least 34 asylum seekers, among them 15 babies and children, died Sunday when their overcrowded boat capsized in high winds off a Greek island.

France’s honorary consul in Turkey this week resigned after she was found to be selling rubber dinghies and life jackets to migrants seeking to sail to Europe.

The Frenchwoman, Francoise Olcay, was suspended Friday after a television report showed her selling the items from a sailing goods shop she owns in the southwestern Turkish resort town of Bodrum.

“Our honorary consul in Bodrum, who was suspended on Friday night after the broadcast of a report by France 2, handed in her resignation to the Consul General in Istanbul,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

Olcay, who has held the position of honorary consul since October 2014, was secretly filmed by the reporting team and later admitted to her actions.

She claimed that if she did not sell the boats and life vests to the desperate refugees, someone else would.

Bodrum is the main departure point for thousands of refugees who, having arrived in Turkey, undertake the risky journey to the Greek islands for what they hope will be a better life in Europe.

The town hit the headlines earlier this month after images of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi lying on the beach caused shock around the world and prompted an outpouring of public sympathy for refugees.