At least five children died when boats carrying migrants sank off Greece on Wednesday, as rescue workers battled to save more youngsters on the seashore in the latest desperate scenes in Europe’s refugee crisis.
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The global Organization for Migration said in a statement a few sources told it 200 people were on the boat when it went under, while others had told it 300.
The Greek coast guard says it has rescued 242 people off the eastern island on Wednesday, and rescuers continue to search the rough waters for more survivors. A 7-year-old boy died off Lesbos, where most migrants land, while a 12-month-old girl was in critical condition in hospital from the same boat accident.
Ms Myers, who is also working with Starfish, a group set up by a Lesbos restaurant owner to help refugees, said there had been a massive queue of rescued people – “everyone soaked, freezing and traumatised”. Swimmers and the coastguard are out. A human being holds three kids sporting thermal blankets after their arrival in offensive weather from Turkey to Lesbos on October 28, 2015.
More than half a million have arrived in the country so far this year.
Conflict in the Middle East – including the ongoing civil war in Syria – has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes to seek a better life in Europe.
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“What we don’t need in the wake of this tragedy is another “extraordinary” meeting that leads to a dead end”.
