France suspends honorary consul in Turkey over boat sales to migrants

The honorary French consul in the Turkish seaside resort of Bodrum has been suspended for selling rubber dinghies and life jackets to migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

Pictures of the body of a drowned Syrian toddler lying on the beach at Bodrum, south-western Turkey, prompted international outrage and an outpouring of sympathy for migrants earlier this month. Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, his four-year-old brother and mother perished trying to make the crossing.

Bodrum is a gateway to the European Union and thousands of others have risked their lives crossing from the resort to the Greek island of Kos on tiny boats.

The consul, Françoise Olcay, was secretly filmed by France 2 television at her boat supplies shop selling inflatable dinghies and life jackets to Syrians who have fled civil war. The shop has a French flag hanging outside, beside a plaque reading “Consular agency of France”.

Mrs Olcay, who has held the unpaid position since October last year, was asked if she realised she was encouraging people-smuggling.

“If we didn’t do it, others would,” she replied, claiming that local authorities were also involved.

Honorary consuls are not professional diplomats and can engage in other, paid work.

However, they are public servants and the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, ordered her suspension immediately after the television report was broadcast, a spokesman said.

Migrants transiting through Bodrum are a boon for local shopkeepers.