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 Tens of thousands of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and
beyond pack into often unsafe boats each year and thousands of them
drown in their efforts to enter the European Union through coastal
states.
The boat, which capsized, was loaded with 42 Afghan illegal
migrants, including 12 children and seven women, along with a
Turkish captain, the Hurriyet news website reported. It was believed
to have been heading for Bulgaria or Romania, but it was unclear
where it set to sea.
Bodies covered in blankets were laid on a jetty on the European side
of Istanbul's Bosphorus strait, a Reuters witness said.
"They had life jackets. But there were bodies everywhere. Babies,
children... We pulled out 15-20 bodies," Hurriyet quoted fisherman
Kadir Sert as saying.
 Seven coastguard vessels and a helicopter were continuing search
operations in the Black Sea, some 3 miles (5 km) north of the
Bosphorus, the coastguard said in a statement.
Shipping agents GAC said the boat had been heading for the Romanian
port of Constanta when it sank around 5 a.m. (10 p.m. EST on Sunday)
and was believed to be carrying around 50 refugees.
The governor's office said a diving team had also been sent to the
area. There was no official comment on the number of people
traveling on the vessel.
Most of the migration to Europe happens via the Mediterranean Sea
and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said last
week that an estimated 3,200 migrants had died attempting to cross
the Mediterranean this year.
"Many of them (are) victims of ruthless criminal gangs seeking to
profit from the misery of men, women and children fleeing conflict
and oppression," the IOM said in a statement on its website.
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Some 150,000 "irregular" migrants, many of them from the most
troubled nations in Africa and the Middle East, had arrived safely
in Europe over the past 10 months, it said.
The numbers of migrants have increased since "Arab Spring" uprisings
triggered unrest across North Africa and civil war in Syria.
Traffic on the Bosphorus strait, one of the world's busiest
waterways, was suspended at 10:20 am (3.20 a.m. EST) due to the
search and rescue operations and resumed at 6 a.m. EST, GAC said.
The Bosphorus is a vital route for Russian oil and other commodities
as the only outlet to the world's oceans from the Black Sea. It
bisects Istanbul, a city of around 15 million people. Poor weather
frequently forces its closure in winter.
(Reporting by Osman Orsal; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick
Tattersall and Andrew Heavens)
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