At least 14 migrants, including seven children, drowned today when their flimsy boat sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast while trying to reach Greece, the latest fatalities in Europe’s refugee crisis.
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Polish and Czech officials say that the Czech Republic will represent Poland at an informal European Union summit on Thursday on migration, the result of domestic political infighting in Poland. The coastguard said fisherman rescued another 22 from the boat off Izmir, while the hunt was going on for two missing. The migrants’ nationalities weren’t instantly known.
The Turkish coastguard recovered the bodies from the wooden boat which was heading from the province of Canakkale to the Greek island of Lesbos, Dogan news agency said, adding that 27 people were rescued.
The Turkish Coast Guard is searching for more of the victims.
The latest tragedy came as European leaders were due to meet African counterparts in Malta to discuss the migration crisis.
The government fears that if neighboring Austria restricts their flow further along their route, the people stranded in Slovenia would be too many to handle.
A man tries to calm a girl who arrived with her family on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the Skala Sikaminias village on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos on Wednesday, November 11, 2015. It warned about the possibility of more deaths among the thousands of refugees who have been crossing the Aegean “if adequate measures are not taken”.
The agency said its focus is on improving shelter and reception facilities for the winter and providing items like tents, refugee housing units, blankets and clothing. It also hopes to winterize water and sanitation systems.
The additional appeal raises UNHCR’s total additional funding request to almost $173 million.
More migrants fled to Europe in October than in all of past year, exacerbating an already dire situation for both refugees and host countries.
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Prime Minister Miro Cerar said a day earlier that his country expects about 30,000 new migrants to reach Slovenian borders.
