Istanbul, May 13 () - Six children and a woman from a group of 33 migrants trying to cross into the eastern Turkish province of Van from bordering Iran have frozen to death.
The migrants were found by Turkish soldiers on patrol near the Iranian border at around 4 a.m. on May 13.
According to reports, the seven migrants had already died prior to their discovery by soldiers, while eight others were gravely ill.
Five migrants with serious health problems were transferred to a hospital in Van, while the other three were being treated in a state hospital in Van’s Çaldıran district.
Van is a major crossing point for Iranian refugees in Turkey, numbering over ten thousand according to reports by the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
