News / Turkey

Eight refugees, including six children, drown in Aegean Sea

Thursday, 24 December 2015 10:58 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 24 December 2015 11:13 AM ]

A man carries a girl as refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos on December 3, 2015, after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. (© AFP)

At least eight refugees, among them six children, have lost their lives and 14 others gone missing after enormous waves struck their overloaded boat in the Aegean Sea, and tipped it over.

They were heading to the Greek island of Lesbos early on Thursday, when their wooden boat capsized not more than three kilometers (two miles) off the shores of Bademli village in Turkey’s western province of Izmir.

Turkish coastguards are now searching the area for the missing, amid reports that more refugees could be stuck in the deck.

The tragedy came only five days after at least 18 refugees died when their boat overturned in the Aegean Sea en route to the Greek island of Kalymnos.

Some 14 others on the boat were pulled to safety by the Turkish coastguard. Those on board came from different countries, including Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.

On December 10, four asylum seekers of Iraqi origin died after a boat capsized off Greek shores.

Refugees wait under the rain to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, in northern Greece, on September 10, 2015. (© AFP)

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Syrian refugees have been stranded at a gas station close to the border between Greece and Macedonia for four days now.

"We're waiting for the train. There is a problem for the train," a Syrian refugee, who identified himself as Ahmed, said.

Last month, Macedonian authorities limited the number of refugees entering the landlocked Balkan country to between 2,500 and 3,000 refugees. The number is down from more than 5,000 asylum seekers permitted a day previously.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Officials in European countries are struggling to forge a united response to the record numbers of refugees.

While a few European leaders support an open-door refugee policy, others are in favor of controlling EU’s external borders. They are deporting more people and paying third countries to keep asylum seekers on their soil.

Germany is the top destination in the EU. Sweden has apparently taken in the highest number of asylum seekers in relation to its own population, while Britain has recorded the lowest.

According to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million refugees have reached Europe’s shores so far this year.

More than 3,300 people have either died or gone missing in their perilous journey to the continent.

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