The recent migrant boat tragedy in Turkey suggested that traffickers and smugglers are trying new routes through the Black Sea as Mediterranean nations help coastal patrols in response to a major increase in smuggling ships and deaths.  The tragedy killed at least 24 people and a number are still missing after the boat sank off the north coast of Turkey.

The migrant boat tragedy occurred where the Bosporus meets the Black Sea. BBC News reported a large aerial, sea and underwater rescue operations have been taking place as numerous bodies were being pulled from the water.

As said by the Turkish Coastguard Command, rescuers pulled 24 bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul's Bosporus strait on Monday and rescued seven people after the sinking of the boat carrying migrants, which include children. As per NBC News, the capsized boat was loaded with 42 Afghan illegal migrants.   

The migrant boat, which carried 42 Afghan migrants including 12 children, seven women and a Turkish captain, was believed to be to have been heading for Bulgaria or Romania; however, it was indistinct where it set to sea, The Guardian reported.

One of the fishermen involved in the search and rescue operation, Emrecan Kolcu said he headed to the area when another fisherman radioed that he had seen a body in the sea.

"We saw dead bodies," Kolcu said. "It was not possible not to see them anyway. Everywhere was full of dead bodies. They had life vests on them."

Authorities in Turkey said the migrant boat had issued a distress call early Monday morning about 5 kilometers north of Bosporus Strait in the Black Sea, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, the migrant boat tragedy in Turkey reflected a sad but too familiar scenario in an age of hopeless migrants on the move. The migrants hope to start a new life in Europe. But at the scene where the accident happened, it displayed the remnants of their hopes and dreams as bodies and possessions bounced in the waves.

The International Organization for Migration estimates over 3,200 migrants have died or are missing this year trying to reach European shores. The figure is more than fourfold increase from the death toll in 2013. According to The Washington Post, more than 650 died in a series of shipwrecks and capsizing during just one stretch in September.

Europe remains the busiest and most lucrative goal for smuggling ships, encouraged in part by Syrians and others fleeing civil war and the rise of the Islamic State insurgents.

"Boat arrivals to Europe are a result of the complex humanitarian crisis near Europe's external border," the migration organization said in a statement. "At a time when countries in North Africa, the Middle East and East Africa are hosting millions of displaced persons, compared to a few hundred thousand in all of European reaction should be balanced and compassionate."

Experts say the migrant boat tragedy in Turkey signal the latest attempt to find a weak spot in Europe's defenses against the waves of refuge seekers, war refugees and economic migrants trying to make a journey before the winter season sets in.

The migrant boat tragedy in Turkey significantly voiced the desires of numerous refugees and migrants to seek refuge in Europe for the hope of starting a new and better life despite the perilous journey.