5 migrants trying to reach Greece drown off Turkish coast

1Turkish Coast Guard personnel carry a body bag, with one of migrants that were drowned as they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, after they were brought to the port of Bodrum, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
2Migrants that were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard watch as they sit on the right.
3With the shores of Kos - a gateway to Europe - just a few kilometers (miles) away, hundreds of migrants are piling into tiny inflatable dinghies each night and attempting to make the crossing powered by tiny outboard motors and plastic paddles.
4Turkish Coast Guard personnel carry a body bag with one of the five migrants who were drowned as they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, as they were brought to the port of Bodrum, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
5Migrants rescued from their dinghy in their attempt to cross the sea from Turkey, gather at the port at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
6More than 130,000 migrants have reached Greece so far in 2015, straining the country's resources.
7At least five people drowned off the Turkish coast early Tuesday as they tried to reach the Greek islands, underscoring the deadly risks taken by migrants making even short crossings to Europe in overcrowded smugglers' boats.
8Turkish coast guards unloaded five body bags at the harbor of western Turkey tourist town Bodrum as rescued migrants, one man clutching his head in his hands, sat on the wharf.
9Medical staff carried a wailing young boy, an oxygen mask around his neck, and a man to ambulances.
10About 20 migrants also were rescued and taken to a harbor in the nearby town of Turgutreis.
11Details of the identities and nationalities of the dead were not immediately available.
12Ayberk Olcay of the Bodrum Sea Rescue Association, who was involved in the rescue operation, said a baby's body also was recovered and three more people, including a child, were rescued.
13It wasn't the only rescue in the Aegean Sea on Tuesday.
14A Doctors Without Borders medical team heading for the Greek island of Leros chanced across a boat carrying 40 migrants, some of whom were in the sea, picked them up and took them to the Greek island of Kos.
15Men hugged and kissed one another as the group, which included young children, reached Kos.
16"It shows that there is a need to increase the capacities in the search and rescue operations here," Doctors Without Borders field coordinator Elisa Galli said.
17The numbers of migrants attempting perilous sea crossings to Europe continue to climb despite the risks.
18Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said over the weekend that as of Saturday, 103,000 migrants had been rescued at sea and brought to Italy in operations coordinated by the Italian coast guard.
19Along with other migrants landing in Spain and Malta, that means more than 243,000 people have crossed so far this year, compared to 219,000 for all of 2014.
20Greece has reported more than 135,000 arrivals from Turkey this year.
21Greece's coast guard said they had rescued 576 migrants in 23 search and rescue operations off the coasts of the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi and Kos in the 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday morning.
22The International Organization for Migration estimates that at least 2,300 people have died this year trying to cross to Europe.
23It is unclear how many people may have died between Bodrum and the Greek island of Kos, which is only four kilometers (2.5 miles) from Turkey at its closest point, making it one of the shortest routes across the Aegean.
24Migrants who were rescued by Turkish Coast Guard as they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, sit after they were brought to the port of Turgutreis near the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
25A migrant that was rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard sits on the foreground, Turkish Coast Guard personnel carry a body bag, with one of the migrants that were drowned as they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, after they were brought to the port of Bodrum, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
26Migrants that were rescued by Turkish Coast Guard as they were trying to cross on a boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, are brought to the port of Turgutreis near the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.
27Medicine Without Borders' members try to help a migrant boy rescued with others from their dinghy in their attempt to cross the sea from Turkey, at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015.