Police dismantled migrant tents that have blocked Greece’s main train connection with Macedonia for the past month, leading to losses for the rail operator and Greek exporters.
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Yesterday, the Greek Coast Guard also reported that a FRONTEX ship rescued 56 refugees and migrants near the village of Molyvos, located in Northern Lesvos.
The UNHCR listed the total number of Greek Aegean drowning deaths by Tuesday at 217, with another 126 people listed as missing.
Also on December 8, at least six children died when a boat carrying Afghan migrants sank in Aegean Sea en route to Greece, while another vessel sank elsewhere Aegean, killing another child. However later those detained were put on the buses to Athens along with other migrants.
More than 3,500 people have died or have reported missing this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
The last images of the migrants were from last Sunday, showing the rising tension as hundreds of people demanded to cross the border.
Over 650,000 people have landed safely on Greek shores with most continuing their journey to other more prosperous European countries.
The Greece-Macedonia border crossing at Idomeni railway station, just across from Gevgelija, was closed on November 18 by the Macedonian authorities, with only those arriving from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan entitled to pass. It said the accident occurred early Wednesday when a wooden boat carrying the migrants from Turkey sank near the islet of Farmakonissi. 4 men & two women have been additionally amongst those in that drowned.
Five other migrants, including a 12-year-old boy, were rescued from the sea off the resort of Cesme, and were found floating in lifejackets, Anadolu Agency said. Their nationalities weren’t instantly known.
Geographically located between war-torn Syria and Iraq in the southeast and the European Union member states of Bulgaria and Greece in the northwest, Turkey has become a transition point for foreign migrants looking to illegally cross into the European Union in an endeavor to flee the violence in Iraq and Syria, well as gain a higher standard of living.
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