18 refugees drowned in Aegean Sea along Turkish coast

A volunteer dressed as a clown gives balloons to refugee children at Victoria square in Athens, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015.

The message, to be broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 on Christmas Day, comes after the United Nations refugee agency said that more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe this year.

Greek police said on Wednesday that at least 13 people, including seven children, drowned when their boat sank in the Aegean.

Coast guard teams saved 21 people, including a baby, and continue searching for two other missing migrants, according to the agency.

The nationalities of the victims were not mentioned in reports.

The deaths today are the third in as many days between Turkey’s southwestern coast and nearby Greek islands and coincides with falling temperatures and rougher seas.

A total of 3,692 migrants died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean this year, it added.

The International Organization for Migration said Tuesday that more than 1 million people have entered Europe in a record-breaking year, driven out of their countries by war, poverty and persecution.

The IOM compiles the numbers from government records in Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Malta and Cyprus, spokesman Joel Millman said.

Turkey, which has at least 2.2 million Syrian refugees, is a major launchpad for migrants and refugees trying to make it to European Union member states. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.

Their boat capsized near Dakili, in Izmir Province, directly across from the Greek island of Lesbos – the first port of call for many migrants trying to reach the European Union.