Remember Aylan Kurdi? Now, Iraqi migrants, aged 6 and 2, found dead off Turkey

Istanbul: Two Iraqi children, aged six and two, have been found dead in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Cesme while trying to reach EU member Greece, the Dogan news agency reported on Wednesday.

The corpses of the two children were found floating in the sea by local fishermen who then handed them over to the local Izmir region coastguard, it added.

Turkish media reports said the two had been among 200 migrants seeking to reach Greece by crossing the Aegean, all of whom had otherwise been rescued.

Some 650,000 migrants, often from Iraq and Syria, have tried to cross the Aegean Sea this year in search of better lives in the European Union. But an estimated 500, including many children, have died in the often perilous crossing.

An image of one dead child -- three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi -- found washed up on a Turkish beach earlier this year sparked reactions of shock that jolted EU states into greater action.

 

The latest tragedy comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to lead a meeting of eight European states and Turkey on the sidelines of an EU summit on Thursday to discuss plans to legally resettle refugees.