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18 refugees drown in Aegean Sea off Turkey

“This decrease may, however, also be attributed to other factors”, said the report seen by AFP.

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The charity’s report says that since September, Turkish authorities have rounded up “possibly hundreds” of migrants onto buses and transported them to detention centres.

The IOM estimates the one million mark will be reached by Tuesday, more than four times the total of 240,000 crossings by land and sea into Europe past year.

Almost 600 people have died this year on the so-called eastern Mediterranean sea route for refugees, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Persons suspected of organizing the trip were detained.

Speaking after talks in Athens with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias the Macedonian minister said the blockages could be “overcome if Athens implemented a “credible (asylum-seeker) registration process”.

According to the online Haberler portal, the wooden boat carrying migrants from Pakistan, Iraq and Syria capsized late Friday about 2 miles off the coast.

“Our collaboration in order to decrease migration flows and non-refugee flows is crucial for our region, for Europe and for EU-Turkey relations”, Tsipras said.

European Union border agency Frontex has said arrivals in Greece in all of November were 108,000, roughly half the figure for October, largely because weather conditions had deteriorated.

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In exchange, Turkey agreed to try to limit numbers travelling to Europe and tackle human smugglers who profit from their desperate journeys.

18 dead after refugee boat sinks before making it to Greece