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ISTANBUL: At least 14 migrants died when their inflatable dinghy capsized in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the governor’s office said Friday, raising an earlier toll of seven dead.
“The lifeless bodies of 14 irregular migrants were recovered,” the office of the Mugla governorate said on X, saying the coast guard was alerted to the emergency in the early hours of Friday morning.
It said they had found two survivors, one of whom said the boat had been “carrying 18 people” when it started letting on water, sinking just 10 minutes later. One survivor managed to swim to Celebi Island.
One of the survivors was an Afghan national, the governor’s office said without saying where the others were from.
It said four coast guard boats backed by a helicopter and a specialist diving team were looking for the two remaining migrants who were unaccounted for, it said.
Migrant boats are often lost 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.
Bodrum lies close to the Greek island of Kos.
According to the Missing Migrants Project run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,400 migrants have died trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea this year.

BRUSSELS: The European Commission said on Friday that US Big Tech giant Meta and Chinese-owned social media app TikTok breach their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data under the Digital Services Act (DSA) according to its preliminary findings.
In a statement, the Commission also said that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram do not appear to provide a user-friendly and easily accessible mechanism for users to flag illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material and terrorist content.
The EU has cracked down on Big Tech companies with the Digital Services Act, which requires large platforms such as social media sites and search engines to have robust measures to mitigate the spread of illegal and harmful content.
“The Commission’s preliminary findings show that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok may have put in place burdensome procedures and tools for researchers to request access to public data,” the EU executive said about the transparency issue.
“Allowing researchers access to platforms’ data is an essential transparency obligation under the DSA, as it provides public scrutiny into the potential impact of platforms on our physical and mental health.”
On Meta hindering the reporting of illegal content, the Commission said the company currently has mechanisms that impose several unnecessary steps and additional demands on users and use “deceptive interface designs.”
“Such practices can be confusing and dissuading. Meta’s mechanisms to flag and remove illegal content may therefore be ineffective. Under the DSA, ‘Notice and Action’ mechanisms are key to allowing EU users ... to inform online platforms that certain content does not comply with EU or national laws,” it said.
The Commission added the companies now have the possibility to examine its findings and take measures to remedy the breaches, adding that the preliminary findings do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
But if the findings of the Commission are confirmed by relevant consultations, it may impose a fine on the companies of as much as 6 percent of their annual global sales.