At least 19 undocumented migrants drowned after their boat sank off the coast of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, officials said.
Northern Cypriot Coast Guard teams said 103 of the migrants were rescued, while 25 of them are reported missing off the coast of the town of Yeni Erenkoy.
Coast guard teams from Turkey also took part in the search and rescue, as the area is in Turkey's rescue zone as well.
The rescued migrants were brought to Turkey.
According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 1,400 illegal migrants have died in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2018.
Search efforts were under way to recover the missing with commercial vessels also taking part, the reports added.
Turkey's DHA news agency said that the refugees were Syrians seeking to go to Europe but this has yet to be confirmed.
Cyprus, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Syria's coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey, Greece and Italy although asylum applications have been rising sharply.
Turkey has however been one of the hubs for refugees fleeing Syria and other trouble spots like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Over a million people, many fleeing the war in Syria, crossed to European Union member Greece from Turkey in 2015 after the onset of the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.
Turkey struck a deal with the EU in 2016 in a effort to stem the flow of migrants, and agreed to take back illegal migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid.
