The captain of a boat that capsized off the western Turkish coast while transporting migrants has been charged with manslaughter and human trafficking.
The first mate has also been detained over similar accusations after at least 61 people died when the fishing boat, which was carrying mostly Arab refugees, sank on its way to Europe on Thursday.
Dozens of survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to the shore, just 50 metres away, after the accident.
The boat was carrying about 100 people, mostly women and children, who had been promised refuge in Europe by smugglers.
“The total death toll is 61, including 12 men, 18 women, 28 children and three babies,” the governor’s office in Izmir said in a statement.
Turkish media said the reason the death toll was so high was because the women and children were in a locked compartment in the lower section of the vessel. Fifteen of the bodies were retrieved from the boat locker, Ardahan Totuk, acting governor of Izmir province said.
The boat’s captain and his mate, as well as dozens of illegal immigrants, were rescued alive, he added.
