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Istanbul (AFP) – Twenty-two people, including children, died Sunday when a vehicle carrying migrants heading for Greece, a member of the EU, fell off the road in a waterway in west of Turkey.
The vehicle was traveling on a highway near the airport of Izmir when it spilled and fell into the canal several meters below, announced the official news agency. Anadolu.
The nationality of the migrants was not yet clear, but 22 people died in the accident and 13 others were injured, the agency said, making a previous assessment of 19 deaths.
Images from the Turkish television showed the wreck of the vehicle upside down in the river channel, reduced to burnt metal by the impact of the accident with corpses scattered along it.
Rescuers then used a crane to lift it on the road, with images showing that the rear of the vehicle was simply an open container in which the migrants had been crammed.
– The driver survives –
According to the DHA news agency, the driver, a 35-year-old Turkish national, survived and told the police that he had made a gap to avoid a white vehicle approaching.
The man, who had a standard "B" license to drive a car, did not have the necessary papers to drive a vehicle of this size, he added.
The truck had been engaged for four days.
Among the dead were two babies, two children and a pregnant woman, he said.
The driver was to be arrested after leaving the hospital, said Anadolu, adding that prosecutors in the region had opened an investigation.
According to the DHA, the vehicle was heading to the coast of the Izmir region, from where the migrants should have tried to reach the Greek island of Samos. In the truck with them were several inflatable boats.
Samos lies a few kilometers north of the Turkish peninsula of Dilek, on the border of the Izmir region.
– Key transit point –
Turkey is a vital transit place for migrants from troubled countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa in search of a new life in Europe.
One million migrants crossed Turkey to visit Greece in 2015, mainly by boat, in a crisis that forced an agreement between Ankara and the EU to put an end to the movement of people.
The numbers have since declined, but people are still embarking on this very perilous journey and the flow has increased this year from 2017.
According to UN figures, more than 24,500 migrants have arrived in Greece by sea since the beginning of the year, and 118 people lost their lives on this road.
Last week, eight migrants were found drowned in Karaburun district, also in the province of Izmir, after the capsizing of their boat.
According to Anadolu, another 26 people are still officially missing after the accident.
Migrants' trips to Greece are often organized by smugglers who demand hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per person to settle the logistics.
After the disaster off Karaburun, four alleged smugglers were arrested after the testimony of an Iraqi who survived, Anadolu said. They claimed $ 1,500 per immigrant.
The Hurriyet daily said the investigators were investigating whether the same network of smugglers behind the Karaburun disaster was also linked to migrants caught in a truck accident.
Eleven people also died Saturday in northern Greece when a car carrying migrants crashed on a truck and ignited.
