AFP, Istanbul

Six migrants drowned while another 27 were rescued by the coastguard when their boat started sinking off the western coast of Turkey, the interior minister said on Wednesday evening.

The incident took place before dawn just south of the seaside resort of Izmir in the waters separating the Turkish coast from the Greek island of Samos, which lies just 15 kilometres (nine miles) away.

“The bodies of six lifeless illegal immigrants were fished out of the water,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, adding that the coastguard had rescued 27 others, one of whom was detained on suspicion of smuggling.

Last month, seven migrants drowned in the same stretch of water.

Shipwrecks are very common on the short but perilous route between the Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes and Lesbos that serve as entry points to the European Union.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2,333 migrants disappeared or died in the Mediterranean last year.