Truck crash kills 18 illegal immigrants in Turkey; Greece rounds up illegal immigrants

06/10/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- A truck carrying illegal immigrants overturned in western Turkey on Sunday (October 5th), killing 18 people and injuring 23. The accident occurred near the town of Malkara, in Tekirdag province, when the driver apparently lost control. No other vehicles were involved. The driver fled after the accident. Officials say the immigrants, mostly from Afghanistan and Burma, planned to sneak into Greece.

In other news Sunday, Greece's coast guard caught 101 illegal immigrants in a co-ordinated operation in the eastern Aegean, officials said. Smugglers sailing from Turkey dropped off the immigrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq, on the islands of Samos and Farmakonisi as well as on two rocky outcrops, from small boats, coast guard officials said. They also detained a Turk suspected of smuggling ten of the immigrants into Greece. (Anadolu news agency, CNN Turk, NTV, Hurriyet, Reuters, RIA Novosti, ANA-MPA, ERT, DPA - 05/10/08)