ANKARA: At least 14 migrants drowned on Monday after a boat carrying them collided with a coast guard boat off Turkiye’s Mediterranean coast during a chase, officials said.
The incident occurred near the coast of Demre, in Antalya province, as the vessel carrying Afghans ignored calls to stop and attempted maneuvers at high-speed to escape the coast guard boats, the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Gov. Hulusi Sahin as saying.
Seven people were rescued from the sea by coast guard teams and given immediate medical care, Sahin said. Fourteen others who reached the shore were detained by gendarmerie units.
Search and rescue operations were continuing by land, sea and air to locate any remaining people who may still be missing.
Authorities have launched both a judicial and an administrative investigation into the incident, Anadolu said.
Separately, Turkiye ‌has drawn up plans to deal with a potential inflow of people fleeing ​the war in neighboring Iran, Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said on Wednesday, with preparations including possible buffer zones along the frontier and tent camps.
There was currently no unusual movement at the three border gates along ‌the Iran-Turkiye ‌border, Ciftci added.
Speaking ​in ‌Ankara, ⁠Ciftci ​said three ⁠contingency plans had been drawn up by authorities: managing any potential migrant flow on the Iranian side of the border; creating buffer zones along the frontier if movement cannot ⁠be stopped; and letting people ‌into Turkiye ‌under controlled conditions.
He added ​that Turkiye had ‌prepared initial capacity to host up ‌to 90,000 people in the event of a sudden inflow, including tent camps and temporary accommodation sites.
On Monday, hundreds of Iranians crossed the border into Turkiye. ⁠Others were reportedly waiting to cross. Ciftci said authorities had been informed that Iran was restricting its own citizens from leaving the country, while allowing Turkish nationals and third-country citizens to exit.