Agencies in Ankara

Monday 8 February 2016 15.14 GMT

At least 35 people have died after two boats carrying refugees sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast, according to reports.

The Turkish coastguard said 24 drowned when a boat capsized in the Bay of Edremit, near the Greek island of Lesbos, while the Doğan news agency reported that the bodies of 11 people were found after a separate accident further south, near the Aegean resort of Dikili.

The deaths came as Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, met the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, for further talks on reducing the influx of refugees to Europe.

Turkey is central to Merkel’s diplomatic efforts to reduce the flow. An unprecedented 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in Germany last year, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In her weekly video message on Saturday, Merkel said European Union countries agreed that the bloc needed to protect its external borders better, and that that is why she was seeking a solution with Turkey. She added that, if Europe wanted to prevent smuggling, “we must be prepared to take in quotas of refugees legally and bear our part of the task”.

“I don’t think Europe can keep itself completely out of this,” Merkel added.

Turkey faces pressure from the EU to open its borders to up to 35,000 Syrians who have massed along the frontier in the past few days fleeing an onslaught by government forces.

On Monday Davutoğlu said humanity was being tested in Syria and that the ongoing crisis called for cooperation between states.

“Aleppo is in effect under siege,” he said. “There is great pressure on Germany with regard to the refugees in Europe. Humanity is being tested in Syria, we have to face this test together.”

Davutoğlu underlined that nobody should expect Turkey to shoulder the refugee crisis alone, and harshly criticised the ongoing, Russian-backed attack on Aleppo.

“There are almost 30,000 Syrians waiting at our border … the inhumane attack on Aleppo needs to stop as soon as possible.”

He also said that Turkey had cracked down on human traffickers over the past months in an effort to stem the flow of refugees to the EU, adding that Turkey and Germany would increase joint efforts to curb the activities of human smugglers.

“We have always seen human trafficking, in all its forms, as a crime against humanity, a crime equal to terrorism,” Davutoğlu said. “It is one of the biggest crimes against humanity to exploit the hopes and expectations of innocent people.”

Turkey, home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, says it has reached its capacity to absorb more but has indicated that it will continue to provide refuge.

It agreed in November to fight smuggling networks and help curb irregular migration. In return, the EU has pledged €3bn (£2.3bn) to help improve the condition of refugees, and to grant political concessions to Turkey, including an easing of visa restrictions and the fast-tracking of its EU membership process.

Turkey has since started to require Syrians arriving from third countries to apply for visas, in an attempt to exclude those who aim to continue on to Greece. It has agreed to grant work permits to Syrians as an incentive for them to stay. Ankara has also announced plans to increase coastguards’ capabilities and designate human smuggling as a form of organised crime, which would bring stiffer punishments.