In a second incident off the holiday island of Rhodes three people – including a child and an infant – drowned, three were missing and a further six people were rescued. At least 140 people were rescued from the two wrecks, while a few are still missing.
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“We have warned for weeks that an already bad situation could get even worse if desperate refugees and migrants must continue to resort to smugglers who send them out to sea despite the worsening weather”, the UNHCR’s Alessandra Morelli said in a statement Thursday.
The coastguard recovered the bodies of the children, aged from one to four, from the inflatable dingy while another 19 migrants, all wearing life jackets, were rescued, the Dogan news agency reported.
He was asked to explain Greece’s agreement to temporarily host up to 50,000 refugees pending their relocation to other countries.
“I feel ashamed by Europe΄s inability to deal effectively with this drama”, added the prime minister, noting that he also feels ashamed by the discussion made at summit level.
The scenes bring home a sobering reality: While the flow of migrants into Europe tends to abate as winter nears and the journey becomes more risky, this year it has only risen as thousands of people fearless death in raging seas and freezing temperatures.
Meanwhile, rescuers in southern Spain were searching for survivors after a boat carrying migrants broke up on its way from Morocco.
Port police said it was not clear how many people might be in the water, with survivors giving a confusing picture of the number of people who were on the boat that capsized off Lesbos.
A man holds a child on a beach shortly after arriving with around 125 people to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos from the Turkish coast, Thursday, October 29, 2015.
As Lesbos runs out of burial space for dead migrants, the outspoken mayor has called on the government to dismantle a border fence at the frontier with Turkey to open a land bridge, to reduce sea crossings and relieve the island’s burden.
“We are not talking about managing a problem, we are talking about stopping a crime”, he said.
Germany expects to receive about one million refugees and migrants this year alone. They said 274 people have been rescued, while one remains missing.
Spain’s marine rescue service says almost 40 people who are dead or missing fell into the sea when the bottom of their Zodiac-type inflatable boat collapsed.
In Munich yesterday, Germany’s vice chancellor attacked what he described as irresponsible bickering in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc over the refugee crisis. Merkel has argued there’s no way to instantly stop the influx.
Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, a center-left Social Democrat, said the infighting “would appear freakish in normal times”.
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“The waves of the Aegean are not just washing up dead refugees, dead children, but (also) the very civilization of Europe”, he said, dismissing Western shock at the children’s deaths as “crocodile tears”.
