Six migrant children drown off Turkey’s coast

Six Afghan migrant children drowned on Tuesday after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea while trying to reach Greece. In the period came more than 500 of them, including mostly children, in the unsafe crossing killed.

Almost 600 people have died this year on the so-called eastern Mediterranean sea route for migrants, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Balkan states began blocking passage last month to all but Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, who are considered as refugees because they are fleeing war zones.

The UN refugee agency expressed concern on Tuesday for the situation of 12,000 refugees stranded at the Syria-Jordan border in deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the USA has the world’s largest refugee resettlement program, and Syrians are “the most scrutinized population”.

Among Chris Cuomo, Joe Scarborough and George Stephanopoulos, it was tough to tell which television host became more exasperated talking to Donald Trump about his proposal to block Muslims from entering the United States. The bodies of the children, including a baby, were found on the coast of the province of Izmir in western Turkey, as the official news agency Anadolu reported. All times local:11:55 a.m. Greek riot cops officers have removed tons of of protesting migrants from a border crossing to Macedonia, which is denying them entry, deeming them to be economic migrants and never refugees.

Humanitarian workers in the area had been asked to leave while reporters and photographers, some of whom were briefly detained, were held back at a distance of about three kilometres (two miles).

The Greek authorities said they have rescued 26 people, but emergency crews are still searching for those missing.

The bodies of the children were recovered.

In a step forward Thursday, the European Union border control agency, Frontex, said it had agreed with Greece to expand its activities to the border with Macedonia, where it will assist with registering migrants, beginning next week.

It is still not clear how many refugees were on the boat, as rescue operations are continuing.

Turkey has stepped up efforts to stop migrants from leaving for Greece by sea, and last week, authorities rounded up around 3,000 migrants and asylum-seekers from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria in the town of Ayvacik – north of Cesme – which is a main crossing point to the Greek island of Lesbos.