Survivors of boat wreck recount close call with death

By Mustafa Gungor

MERSIN, Turkey

Survivors of a boat carrying undocumented migrants, which sank in the Mediterranean Sea, recounted their close call with death.

At least 19 migrants drowned off the coast of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Wednesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency Bashar al Askar said that he fled from war-torn Syria to Turkey where he contacted a human smuggler in southern Mersin province.

Askar said the smuggler wanted $2,500 to transport him to Northern Cyprus.

"My uncle's children and their wives also drowned. We stayed in the sea for eight-nine hours after the boat sank," he said.

Askar thanked Turkish coastguards for rescuing them.

Ahmad Cuma, another undocumented migrant, said that the engine stopped because of the water.

"As the waves crashed, the boat filled with water. The engine went off after a while," he said.

Ahmad Hani, a Syrian, said he arrived with his cousins in southern Hatay province nearly a month ago.

"We wanted to go to Cyprus from Mersin," he said.

"When the ship sank we swam for nine hours. Some of us died, they could not be saved.

"There were also women and children among those who drowned, we were really scared in the water, thinking that we might die," he said.

Esham Muhammad said that their goal is to build a new life.

"We went on the journey to live, but many of us lost their lives on the way," he said.

Northern Cypriot Coast Guard teams said 103 of the passengers had been rescued, while 25 of them are reported missing off the coast of the town of Yeni Erenkoy.

Coast guard teams from Turkey also took part in the search and rescue operation, as the area is in Turkey’s rescue zone as well.

According to a statement by the Turkish Coast Guard Command, the migrants, including a child and a woman, were Syrian nationals. One of the drowned women was pregnant.

There was a shortage of life jackets, it added.

The bodies and 102 rescued migrants were brought to Tasucu port in Silifke district of Mersin province, while one rescued migrant had to be transferred in a helicopter to a hospital in Northern Cyprus's city of Girne.

According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 1,400 migrants have died in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2018.