18 refugees drown after boat sinks off coast of Turkey

There was also a commitment by the European Union to pressure third countries into either activating older reintroduction agreements or agreeing to readmissions, he revealed.

Turkish media reports that the boat is believed to have been making its way to the Greek island of Kalymnos.

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

According to the premier, the European leaders recognized the need for a resettlement mechanism applied directly from Turkey and they committed to beginning this in February.

Turkish coast guards rescued eight refugees, while operations to find a missing one were still underway.

It says Denmark is tightening refugee policies because “too high number of refugees puts pressure on the Danish society and makes it more hard to ensure a successful integration of those who come to Denmark”.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 781,000 migrants have arrived in Greece by sea since the start of 2015, majority coming from Turkey.

The report came as Turkey’s state-run news agency said four Iraqi migrants – two of them children – had drowned after a boat taking them to Greece sank off the Turkish coast.

The vast majority of migrants who arrived this year – close to 1 million in total – arrived on Greek Aegean islands from Turkey.