Four children, including a baby, are among eight refugees thought to have drowned after their wooden vessel crashed into a coast guard ship off the coast of Greece.
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The ministry said 21 other migrants had been on board the boat sailing from Turkey’s shores to Lesbos, and that they reported that three passengers had gone missing.
Dozens of migrants have died making the perilous Aegean Sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.
An elderly Syrian woman looks out from a window of a bus after her arrival aboard a ferry from the Greek island of Lesbos at the Athens’ port of Piraeus Wednesday, October 14, 2015. The global Organization for Migration said more than 593,000 peopl…
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – The latest news as migrants fleeing war or seeking a better life make their way across Europe by the tens of thousands.
Thousands of people – mostly refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict – have been trying to reach the Greek island Lesbos in order to reach Western Europe.
Just under 505,700 refugees have arrived in Europe by sea this year, most arriving in Greece, according to the group.
Most have rapidly headed north towards Germany.
“The chancellor is walking on thin ice”, judged the conservative daily Die Welt, pointing to a “growing gap” between Merkel and the base of her centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) who demand she stem the record influx.
She adds “I would like to avoid that, but I don’t see how else we can protect ourselves”, particularly if neighboring countries close their borders with Croatia. “The security closure has been completed on the Hungary-Croatia border, the government is now able with the help of the police and army to seal the border”, government spokesman Janos Lazar told reporters in Budapest.
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Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels ahead of a two-day summit of European Union leaders on migration, Juncker asked Athens to rethink its position as the cooperation of the two countries’ naval forces, “under European auspices”, would be “very useful” in the Aegean.
