Protests planned at Greek border after more migrants drown

At least 44 people including 20 children have died after their boats sank on their way from Turkey to Greece; dozens of other migrants are reported missing in the incident.

“These deaths highlight both the heartlessness and the futility of the growing chorus demanding greater restrictions on refugee access to Europe”, said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.

With the refugee crisis showing little signs of diminishing Turkey’s minister for European Affairs, Volkan Bozkir, said in January they will start to offer Syrian refugees work permits and increased benefits in a bid to stem the flow of the refugees willing to make the often unsafe boat journey to Europe. The coast guard rescued 22 men and four women, and recovered 34 bodies – those of 16 women, seven men and 11 children.

In the first tragedy, a wooden boat carrying 48 people sank in off the small islet of Farmakonissi in the eastern Aegean Sea.

Under a November deal with the EU, Ankara had already agreed to reduce the number of migrants coming through, but between 2,000 and 3,000 people are still arriving daily in Greece from Turkey. “It is a crisis that was born out of the crisis in Syria”.

At least 60 people have died in Greek waters this month while trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands in poor weather conditions, most using dinghies and old wooden boats.

At a summit in Brussels on November 29, the EU offered Turkey – which has hopes of joining the union – US$3.2 billion to address the refugee crisis.

Merkel also won praise from Davutoglu for her leadership in the refugee crisis, who said: “Mrs Merkel has taken a historic step in the conscience of humanity”. “The people of Syria will never forget this humanitarian stance”.

“We are doing studies of that and it is impressive”, she said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They are planning a march Sunday toward the border fence.

Forty made it to shore and one girl was rescued, but the bodies of six children and one woman were found.

In this photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016 piles of life jackets used by refugees and migrants to cross the Aegean sea from the Turkish coast remain stacked on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos. Survivors told the authorities that all passengers were accounted for.

Survivors warming up at Kalymnos island after being rescued…