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11 refugees drown after boat capsizes off coast of Greece

Greek authorities say 11 people have drowned on the unsafe crossing from Turkey to Greece after a plastic boat carrying almost 30 refugees sank in heavy seas near the eastern island of Samos.

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Between January and October 2015, more than 500,000 people arrived on the Greek islands, up almost 1370 percent from all of 2014.

Despite worsening weather at the onset of winter that has made the already hazardous sea voyage even more unsafe, a record 48,000 refugees and migrants arrived last week in Greece, the global Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. There’s an ongoing search for “one or two missing”, the spokeswoman stated.

On Thursday, ten refugees drowned in waters near Greece after four boats overturned.

Europe is now facing its largest influx of refugees and migrants in decades, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people moving attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa and the Middle East to escape conflict in countries including Syria. There were near-gale force winds blowing in the Aegean at the weekend.

The other victim had been washed up on the island, it said. Galinos said he was trying to fast-track procedures so a field next to the main cemetery could be taken over for burials.

A migrant child passes time on the beach as its family consider their options to begin their effort on dinghies to try to cross from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Chios, near Cesme, Turkey, Sunday, November 1, 2015. A few 200 people were also rescued in the incident.

Afghans come second, making up 18 percent of the total.

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The item timed at 7:35 p.m. has been corrected to reflect that more people crossed in October than in the whole of 2014, following clarification issued by UNHCR.

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