State-run Anadolu Agency said the coastguard found the bodies of six children including a baby, adding that the migrants on the boat were Afghans. They all wore life jackets. Rescuers were searching for two other migrants who were reported missing.
Advertisement
In a separate incident on Monday, the body of a five-year-old girl washed up on a beach in Turkey. Anadolu didn’t report their ages, but said one of them was a baby. Turkey has committed itself as part of an agreement reached with the European Union to Tug organizations to fight more, which often send too many refugees on old, rickety boats and without enough lifejackets sea.
The six children join the more than 3,500 people who have died or gone missing while crossing the Mediterranean Sea this year, according to UNHCR figures.
Germany’s interior minister says the number of migrants arriving in the country has declined significantly over the past week or two. A record 30,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Finland so far this year, up tenfold from 2014.
The UNHCR is also urging Jordan’s government to allow 12,000 refugees stranded near Rukban and Hadalat in Syria into the country.
“The lives of refugees will be at risk in the coming months”, UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told a news briefing in Geneva.
The wooden boat was believed to have been carrying about 50 people when it began taking on water near the Greek islet of Farmakonissi early on Wednesday.
Greece is the main point of entry into Europe for the refugees, and the influx has become tough to handle for the country, which is already going through its worst financial crisis in decades.
Migrants continue to attempt the perilous crossing despite the onset of winter weather, mounting obstacles in Europe and increased efforts by Turkey to crack down on people smugglers.
Advertisement
More than 600,000 people have arrived in Greece this year by making the short but perilous journey by boat or rubber dinghy from Turkey to outlying islands.
