Another six people were also reportedly detained on claims of organizing the voyage.

There has been an upsurge in the recent months in the numbers of refugees, who attempted to reach Greece, travelling on shaky vessels.

Especially, Turkey's western coast, which brackets the Aegean Sea with Greece, an EU country, on the far side, is constantly receiving immigrants – especially from Syria – who are accompanied by their smugglers, abandoned by their smugglers, or simply left afloat to fend for themselves on their journey which seemingly will lead them to a better standard of living in Europe. The immigrants are often charged an astronomical amount of thousands of dollars for the boat trip of their life, and usually abandoned after their traffickers receive their money.