Fifty-five people saved off western Turkey

Turkish security forces have rescued 55 migrants and refugees caught in a storm in the Aegean Sea off the southwestern province of Mu?la, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.      

Police said they rescued the group as they were attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos from Mu?la's Bodrum district on the night of Feb. 15.        

Witnesses said the storm blew the group's nine-meter plastic dinghy ashore in Bodrum shortly after the attempted crossing.        

The 55, including children, were reportedly from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. Many were provided initial treatment by local residents at local coffee houses and nearby businesses. Afterward, the injured were taken to hospital by emergency services.  

Syrian nationals were sent to facilities operated by the Directorate General of Migration Management, while Pakistani and Afghan nationals were sent to a police station for deportation.

Geographically located between war-torn Syria and Iraq in the southeast and the EU member states of Bulgaria and Greece in the northwest, Turkey has become a transit point for migrants looking to illegally cross into the EU, fleeing the violence in Iraq and Syria.

The wave of migration across the Aegean Sea has often resulted in injuries and deaths due to either the capsizing of migrant-carrying boats or abuse of migrants by human traffickers.

Of the more than 1.1 million refugees who arrived in the EU last year, more than 850,000 arrived by sea from Turkey to Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Over the course of the year, 805 people died in the Aegean. In the first month of 2016, more than 52,000 people have arrived by sea in Greece, while more than 200 have...