A boat carrying 39 refugees sank into the Aegean Sea after colliding with a Greek Coast Guard boat offshore of Greek island Lesbos on Thursday.
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Thirty-five percent of those registered were women and children, it said, adding that the figures were “likely to be grossly underestimated” since as many as two thirds of those who transit the country are believed to do so without being registered. It capsized after colliding with a Greek coast guard vessel, Xinhua news agency reported.
A wooden boat carrying migrants sank within minutes of being hit by the Greek coastguard, killing seven people.
According to Greece’s port police, the boat had apparently been attempting to flee the coastguard vessel. The worldwide Organization for Migration said more than 593,000 people have crossed this year – of which 453,000 traveled from Turkey to Greece, which has faced a massive influx of people from Syria.
As many as 4,000 people meanwhile remained stranded near the landing spot on the north coast of the island, after bus transfers to the reception center were halted due to the overcrowding there, Edwards said.
Her death makes her one of the more than 3,100 people who have died this year while crossing to Europe on rubber dinghies and wooden vessels.
Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic urged European leaders to support Turkey in dealing with refugees and migrants, design a common EU asylum policy and strengthen Frontex, the European border agency. Syrian refugees are the dominant nationality, according to Frontex.
But European Council President Donald Tusk, who is hosting the summit, said it was proving “difficult” to get firm commitments from Turkey.
European leaders hope that by helping Turkey cope with the refugees and tighten border controls, they can prevent more people risking their lives on the perilous journey to Europe.
The asylum-seekers could be lodged in Germany, Finland, France, Portugal or Spain as part of the EU’s plan to ease pressure on front-line countries Greece and Italy.
European Union leaders are expected to discuss, among other issues, the funding shortfall, the upcoming Africa conference in Malta, and the Dublin asylum rule, which determines who is responsible for processing applications.
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The European Union has approved a plan to share out 160,000 refugees, mostly Syrians and Eritreans, across its 28 states to tackle the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two.
