Migrant crisis: 13 die in ferry collision off Turkey

At least 13 refugees have been killed after a boat on its way to Greece collided with a ferry off the coast of Turkey, reports say.

Thousands of refugees who are stranded in Turkey’s western province of Edirne, which borders both Greece and Bulgaria, are struggling to cope with hard circumstances and sweltering heat during daylight and cold nights in makeshift camps set up near highways or in the city’s historic Sarayiçi square.

Eight people were rescued, who were taken to hospital, Erkal said.

Meanwhile, Hungary yesterday reopened its main border crossing with Serbia, whose closure led thousands of migrants to surge into Croatia and forced the desperate flood of humanity to be bounced around countries.

It is believed to be the second migrant boat to have sunk between Turkey and Greece on Sunday.

On Saturday, 13 people, including a five-year-old girl, drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Lesbos, while 26 other people are missing in the sea after another incident off the same island today.

Greek coastguard spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said 11 people were rescued from the boat that sank and a twelfth swam ashore in the early hours.

More than 470,000 refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have arrived in Europe this year.

Of the record 430,000 refugees and migrants who have made the journey across the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, 309 000 have arrived via Greece, according to the global Organization for Migration.

“What’s even more disturbing is knowing that many more lives will be lost unless we provide urgent aid to these refugees who don’t have anyone to turn to”, he added.

“We are being deported at our cost – whoever doesn’t have the money to go to Beirut airport, they send him to Bab al-Hawa”.

Germany says it now expects two trains from Austria, carrying 1,000 migrants in total, to cross its border at Freilassing on Sunday evening.

He said it will result in Hungary building a fence – similar to that it built on its border with Serbia – along its frontier with Croatia.

On Friday, Croatia has said it was overwhelmed by the influx and has been sending the migrants to neighboring Slovenia and Hungary. The Greek coastguard said another two dozen people are feared missing from another similar incident near Lesbos. That was a reference to corruption charges filed recently against Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.