News / EU

Death toll from refugee boat incident off Greece passes 40

Friday, 22 January 2016 4:38 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 22 January 2016 4:38 PM ]

Syrian refugees shrouded in life blankets are seen upon arriving at the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, September 28, 2015. (AFP Photo)

The death toll from a refugee boat incident off Greek islands reaches 42, including 17 children.

The Greek coast guard said on Friday that dozens of refugees were on board a wooden sailboat which went down off Kalolimnos Island.

The coast guard said it had rescued 26 refugees and recovered the bodies of 34 others in what is regarded as one of the worst incidents in months.

It is not clear why the vessel capsized.

In a separate incident off Farmakonisi Island, six children and two women drowned when their wooden boat crashed into rocks shortly after midnight.

“Another 40 migrants on the vessel managed to swim to the shore,” the coast guard said in a statement.

Greek Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas said “ruthless human smugglers at the Turkish coast crammed dozens of refugees … in risky and un-seaworthy vessels … [causing them] to perish.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the deaths in the Mediterranean already make the current month the “deadliest January on record.”

The latest incidents bring the number of refugees killed on the eastern Mediterranean route in the past year to at least 900, said IOM spokesman Joel Millman in Geneva.

The IOM said some 24,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in the first two weeks of January.

According to figures released by the IOM, over 3,700 people either died or went missing in their perilous journeys to the continent.

Syrian refugees wait aboard an inflatable dinghy after being rescued while attempting to reach the Greek island of Chios on the Agean Sea near Izmir in the night of December 9 to December 10, 2015. (AFP Photo)

Turkey has become an escape route for refugees fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

An increasing number of refugees are trying to reach Europe’s front states of Greece and Italy through the country despite harsh weather. Most of the refugees then try to move on to Germany.

More than one million refugees reached Europe’s shores in 2015, according to the IOM.

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