ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least three Kurdish children from a Sulaimani family lost their lives after their inflatable boat sank off Turkey's northwestern Edirne province while attempting to cross into Greece, with two still missing at sea, refugee rights monitors reported on Thursday.

The Summit (Lutka) Foundation reported that at least nine Kurdish migrants were onboard the rubber dinghy which set sail from Turkish waters toward Greece on Wednesday evening before capsizing in the Maritsa (Meric) river.

The boat reportedly collided with a submerged tree stump and deflated before reaching Greek waters, leaving all passengers in the water, according to Ranj Pshdary, a Kurdish refugee rights activist.

Two children from the same family remain missing at sea, while their sibling, who was taken to a hospital in the Turkish city of Edirne while in critical condition, died early Thursday.

The children’s parents are currently in custody of Turkish security authorities, with human rights groups denied the opportunity to speak to them, Pshdary added.

Safeen Dizayee, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations (DFR), affirmed to The New Region that the department is trying to gather information on the incident through official channels, adding “we will follow up.”

Thousands of migrants illegally try to cross the deadly Aegean Sea every year in search of a better life in Europe and the United Kingdom, with a large number of them coming from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

According to data gathered by Lutka, around 31,500 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated abroad in 2025, with at least 10 losing their lives during the perilous journeys and two missing, raising the total number of Iraqi migrants to around 800,000 since 2015.

In November, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 1,000 people had died trying to reach Europe through the Central Mediterranean migration route in 2025.