At least 11 people, a lot of them children, have died and an undetermined number of people are missing after the latest refugee boat sinking off an eastern Greek island.
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Members of the Hellenic Coast Guard and Frontex, the European Union’s border patrol agency, responded at the scene while planes from the Hellenic Air Force surveyed the area from above, according to the Coast Guard representative.
The coast guard said the bodies of five girls, five boys, 10 men and five women have been recovered, while 10 people had been rescued.
In 2015 more than 800,000 refugees and migrants landed on the Greek islands in old boats provided by smugglers on the other side of the Aegean.
Senior Dutch government officials are discussing a plan to ferry refugees arriving in Greece back to Turkey to stem the flow of migrants seeking refuge in Europe, Labour Party leader Diederik Samsom said on Thursday. It renewed its call for a safe land passage to be opened on the Greece-Turkey border in order to reduce the death toll in the Aegean Sea. The surge has not abated despite the danger of a winter crossing, even though many use rickety vessels.
The Dutch proposals “to force a solution” to the migrant crisis came as the Swedish authorities said as many as 80,000 people who arrived their a year ago could fail in their requests for asylum and face deportation.
More than one million refugees and migrants travelled to Europe a year ago, most fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Developments are happening fast”, Samsom said, noting that Turkey was giving Syrian refugees the right to work, and increasing the number of children permitted to receive education.
Already some 46,000 have reached Greece in January.
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After an EU investigation found major flaws in Greece’s management of its borders and screening of migrants, the EU Commission warned Athens that other Schengen member states could give a three-month ultimatum to the country to improve the condition.
