Greece-bound migrants drown off Turkish coast

Over 80,000 refugees were saved off Turkish coasts in 2015 alone, while more than 3,000 died on their way to Greek islands via Turkey, the Turkish coast guard said.

It said the migrants were of Syrian, Afghan and Myanmar origin.

The coast guard was able to save 75 refugees.

Turkey is hosting about 2.5 million refugees from Syria.

In 2015, some 500,000 people fleeing the civil war in Syria used Turkey as a launching pad to reach Greece, and thus the European Union, across the relatively narrow stretch of water between the Turkish coast and the nearest Greek islands. According to the coast guard, their vessel set off from near Bademli, a village in Canakkale province, before running into trouble during the crossing and sinking.

Under pressure from the European Commission about delays, Greece expects to have four of five “hot spot” centers for processing migrants operational in about two weeks, its migration minister said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the IOM said 45,361 refugees had arrived in Greece by sea so far this year, 31 times more than the figure recorded for all of January last year.

“We believe there are more dead bodies inside the boat”, he told CNN-Turk television.

She says one man was charged with assaulting a police officer, while the others were charged with being masked in public – illegal in Sweden – and with causing a public disturbance. The country has experienced a sharp drop in newcomers since photo ID checks were introduced this month.

Their boat was heading for Lesbos, one of the main Greek islands located just a few kilometers (miles) off Turkey’s Aegean coastline.

The capsized boat was visible around 50m from the shore, where divers from the coastguard were still searching for the missing.