After a refugee boat capsized on the large Lake Van in eastern Turkey, seven people were killed. The governorate of the province of Bitlis announced today that five people had been found dead, two more had died later in the hospital.
64 people could have been saved. The accident occurred around 3:00 p.m. (local time) when the boat approached the shore. They are Afghans, Pakistanis and people from Bangladesh.
The Van Lake is partly in the province of Bitlis and partly in the province of Van, which in turn borders on Iran. From there, refugees and migrants regularly cross the border to travel towards Europe. There are many Afghans among them – also from the large Afghan refugee camps in Iran. Why people drove across Lake Van is so far unclear.
