18 migrants drown off western coast of Turkey

On Tuesday evening there was another shipwreck off the Turkish coast in which eleven migrants, including three children, drowned when their boat capsized en route across the Aegean Sea to the island of Samos. Around 104 people were rescued in that operation.

Save The Children said it was concerned about the conditions numerous migrants are experiencing as they continue heading into Europe. That’s a rate of more than 10 deaths each day this year.

As the number of people fleeing to Europe passes one million, Oxfam is calling on the worldwide community to address what is a global crisis.

“We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you”.

Fifteen of the passengers were saved by rescuers while another two are still missing, according to Greek authorities.

In a separate incident, almost 800 people have been pulled to safety in the Mediterranean and one body has been recovered, the Italian coastguard said on Wednesday, among migrants attempting the perilous crossing to Europe.

The 162-country intergovernmental agency said the arrival of more than 4,100 people into Greece on Monday put this year’s total over 1 million. More than 3,600 people died or went missing while making the sea journey, it added.

A Turkish Gendarme leads a group of refugees to buses to prevent them from sailing off for the Greek island of Chios by dinghies, at a beach in the western Turkish coastal town of Cesme, in Izmir province, Turkey, December 1, 2015. Millions of Syrians have fled since 2011, with many of them living in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan and Lebanon.

In an effort to stanch the flow, the European Union, which is facing its biggest refugee crisis since World War II, has earmarked $3.2 billion for Turkey to deal with migrants in its territory.