Bird migration

At least 63,285 people have perished or disappeared on migration routes around the world between 2014 and 2023, with most deaths caused by drowning, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday.

A Turkish tanker ship owned by a private company has undertaken a humanitarian mission off Tunisia, rescuing 139 migrants on a sinking boat.

While en route to Malta, the crew of the tanker named Beks Bodrum/Valut received an urgent distress call and swiftly altered their course to aid the refugee boat.

At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year since records began a decade ago, the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said Wednesday.

"The 2023 death toll represents a tragic increase of 20 percent compared to 2022, highlighting the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life," the IOM said in a statement.

A longstanding friendship between a stork and a fisherman in the Karacabey district of Bursa, a northwestern province, blossomed once again as the majestic bird returned for its thirteenth consecutive year of migration, gracefully resting upon the fisherman's boat, reigniting a bond forged over the years.

Nearly 100 migrants have died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean, including Greek seas, since the beginning of 2024, more than double the toll recorded last year during the same period, the UN migration agency said on Monday.

Rain breathes fresh life into Mileyha wetland in the southern province of Hatay, which was on the verge of extinction in the summer months due to sweltering heat, teeming with birds once again. 

Migration Minister Dimitris Keridis said he learned "with great sadness of the deaths of at least 18 migrants in the fire in the Dadia forest."

Eighteen burned bodies were found on Tuesday in a rural area in the northeast of the country where wildfires have been burning out of control for a fourth day.

Due to human-induced factors including collisions with electricity poles and becoming prey for people with guns, storks' migration trips are disrupted throughout the migration period in August and September.

Recently in Istanbul's Arnavutköy, a migrating stork was shot with a gun by an unidentified person.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) unveiled the internal migration figures for the year 2022, revealing that a staggering 2.7 million citizens migrated between provinces within the country.

The annual migration rate, which has exhibited a fluctuating trajectory over the years, reached 3.27 percent in 2022, up from 3.18 percent during the 2007-2008 period.

Due to the fish migration from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, tropical fish have almost become localized by taking their place on the vendors' stalls, which has also led to a change in the culinary preferences in Türkiye, an expert has stated.