Four young children feared died after migrant boat smashes into coast guard

The first bodies to be retrieved were those of a woman, two young girls and a baby, the coastguard said.

Greek Coast Guards said that they have saved 31 refugees.

Even as stewards of a historic cruise ship that carried princes and presidents frantically pursue deals to preserve the vessel, they fear rescue efforts will sink without a large infusion of cash by month’s end.

(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris). A Syrian woman carrying a baby disembarks from a ferry upon arrival from the Greek island of Lesbos at the Athens’ port of Piraeus Wednesday, October 14, 2015.

The global Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 590,000 migrants have reached Europe’s shores since January, while more than 3,000 have died or gone missing.

EU Council President Donald Tusk said early Friday that Borisov informed him before leaving the summit, where leaders agreed to beef up external borders and argued over what to do about half a million refugees and others who have arrived in Europe this year.

The three-week pledge gap comes ahead of the EU’s fourth summit on migration this year in Brussels on Thursday.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says “the member states have got to do what they promised to do”.

The increase in arrivals has added to an already chaotic situation on the Greek islands, and Edwards said UNHCR staff had been briefly evacuated from a registration site on the island of Lesbos Thursday when violence flared there.

Meanwhile, about 400,000 people have illegally entered Greece from the start of the year, fleeing war zones and hoping for a better future in Europe.

“But this is up to Greece to decide, not the European Union,”he said”. While the European Union desperately needs Ankara’s cooperation to ease the migrant flow, there is very little that Europe can do in Syria itself.

The European Union leaders will also discuss so-called “hotspots” – controversial reception centres where migrants are registered, fingerprinted and sorted into genuine refugees who will be granted asylum and economic migrants who must return home.