At least 18 migrants drown off Turkey

More than one million migrants have arrived in Europe this year, of whom some 820,000 have made the risky trip by boat from Turkey to Greece, the Geneva-based the International Organization for Migration said earlier this week.

The wooden boat capsized on Thursday, when it tried to cross from Turkey’s Izmir province, to the Greek island of Lesbos.

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

According to the UN’s refugee agency, more than 950,000 people in total have reached Europe by sea this year.

Another 15 people were rescued off the Greek island of Farmakonisi but one person remains missing.

About 816,000 people arrived in Greece by sea and 4,000 people arrived in Greece by land. Germany’s strong economy has attracted many Europeans who are seeking jobs and a better life than is possible in the economically depressed Balkan countries, although many are being turned back because they are not eligible for asylum.

Millions of Syrians have fled since 2011, with many of them living in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan and Lebanon. It said 3,692 people have drowned trying to get into Europe.

In an effort to halt 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.

The Syrian refugee crisis has been exacerbated by the increasing role of Islamic State in the civil war. Three-year-old Aylan died in September after his family, sheltering in Turkey from the war in Syria, decided to make a desperate bid to reach Greece in a flimsy inflatable boat.

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