Boat collision with ferry off Turkish coast kills several refugees

Greek coastguard spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said 11 people were rescued from the boat that sank and a twelfth swam ashore in the early hours. The survivors say there were a total of 46 people on board.

Rescues and sinkings occur nearly daily in the often choppy seas off Greece’s eastern islands.

That didn’t include about 70 migrants requiring help after their wooden boat ran aground on the island of Rhodes Monday afternoon, or the hundreds who have made it to the islands themselves on flimsy dinghies.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said over 442,440 refugees have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, 2,921 of whom have reportedly lost their lives during the perilous journey.

The coastguard has saved more than 53,000 migrants while you are 274 have passed away in Turkish rain, Kurtulmus has said, without ever having accounting for a time period.

Turkey is one of several east European countries struggling to cope with the influx of refugees escaping Isis and civil war in Syria and Iraq.

Turkey is a major gateway for refugees wishing to reach safety in Europe.

“Tonight, al-Yunan!” one young migrant says, using the Arabic name for Greece. They’ll then head to Greece’s mainland before likely continuing their journey north.

Migrant whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to… That vessel was carrying some two-dozen people.

Only one of the dinghies manages to evade the coastguard tonight. But the refugees nevertheless claim that local officials have threatened that those who lack the funds for an airfare will be deported back to the Bab el-Hawa border crossing into Syria.

But Mr Kovacs said Croatia’s approach, which has been to load the migrants on to train and buses and to take them to the Hungarian border, has been wrong. Migrants from other countries are deported.

“I called the coastguard the other day and reported a boat”. “Most of the drowned people were from the bottom level and the rescue was too late”, he said. But they just kept coming.

“These provinces will not be Edirne or Kirklareli – near the border”, the governor added.