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45 migrants drown as 2 smuggling boats sink off Greece Europe’s migration crisis claims another 46 lives in Aegean
(about 3 hours later)
ATHENS, Greece — At least 45 people, including 17 children, drowned Friday in the Aegean Sea as two smuggling boats sunk off different Greek islands. A search-and-rescue operation was underway for others feared trapped in the wreckage. ATHENS, Greece — The death toll in Europe’s migration crisis rose Friday when two overcrowded smuggling boats foundered off Greece and at least 46 people drowned — more than a third of them children — as European officials remained deeply divided on how to handle the influx.
The Greek coast guard and other boats saved more than 70 people from the sunken vessels. More than 70 people survived, and a large air and sea search-and-rescue effort was underway off the eastern islet of Kalolimnos, the site of the worst accident. It was unclear how many people were aboard the wooden sailboat that sank there in deep water, leaving at least 35 dead.
The new drownings follow hundreds over the past year as Europe faces its worst immigration crisis since the end of World War II. More than a million people seeking asylum have entered the continent in 2015 — most through Greece, coming across the sea in small smugglers’ boats from Turkey. Coast guard divers were due to descend to the sunken wreck early Saturday, amid fears that more people had been trapped below deck.
The European Union is deeply divided on addressing the influx, with several countries blocking or restricting migrant from entering and resisting plans to share the burden of refugees. In the meantime, Germany — where most immigrants are heading — has welcomed those it considers refugees. At least 800 people have died or vanished in the Aegean Sea since the start of 2015, as a record of more than 1 million refugees and economic migrants entered Europe. About 85 percent of them crossed to the Greek islands from nearby Turkey, paying large sums to smuggling gangs for berths in unseaworthy boats.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday the 28-nation bloc faces big economic risks if its member countries start putting up walls between each other, due to the refugee crisis, that restrict borderless travel. Rights groups said the deaths highlight the need for Europe to provide those desperate to reach the prosperous continent’s shores with a better alternative to smuggling boats.
“We are doing studies of that and it is impressive,” she said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. European policy toward its worst immigration crisis since World War II has diverged wildly so far. Germany — where most are heading — has welcomed those it considers refugees. Other countries, led by Hungary, have blocked or restricted them from entering and resisted plans to share the burden of refugees.
But Hungary’s prime minister, who last year built fences on his nation’s borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop migrants from coming in, praised Austria for setting a cap this week on the numbers of refugees it will take. “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 program director.
“Common sense has prevailed,” Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio, calling the Austrian decision “the most important news of the past months.” “A manageable crisis has become a moral test that Europe is in danger of failing dismally,” he said.
“Europe can’t take in huge masses of foreign people in an unlimited, uncontrolled manner,” he said, adding that, for Hungary, “the best migrant is the migrant who does not come.” The U.N. refugee agency said daily arrivals on the Greek islands have surged to more than 3,000 in the past two days, and it cited refugee testimony that smugglers have recently halved their rates amid deteriorating weather conditions.
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee charity, said it’s important that migrants who don’t qualify for refugee status are returned home — a policy often hard to implement as emigrant-producing countries such as Pakistan resist repatriations. “It is tragic that refugees, including families with young children, feel compelled to entrust their lives to unscrupulous smugglers in view of lack of safe and legal ways for refugees to find protection,” said Philippe Leclerc of UNHCR Greece.
In Berlin, Europe’s migrant crisis was the main issue at a meeting Friday of top officials from Germany and Turkey, with Turkey’s prime minister pressing for more support from the European Union. Germany saw an unprecedented 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrive last year, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and most have come through Turkey. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Berlin and pledged to continue to work intensively together not only to stem the flow of people but to improve conditions in camps in Turkey and to try to bring about a peace deal in Syria.
In the first sinking Friday in the eastern Aegean Sea, a wooden boat carrying 49 people foundered off the small Greek islet of Farmakonissi. Forty people managed to make it to shore, while authorities rescued one girl and recovered eight bodies from the sea — six children and two women, the coast guard said. “The refugee crisis is not Germany’s crisis, it is not Europe’s crisis, it is not Turkey’s crisis,” Davutoglu said in a news conference with Merkel. “It is a crisis that was born out of the crisis in Syria. If we cooperate, we can bring this crisis under control. If we throw the issue at each other, solving this issue will become more difficult.”
A few hours later, a wooden sailboat carrying an undetermined number of people sank off the islet of Kalolimnos, south of Farmakonissi. The coast guard rescued 22 men and four women, and recovered 34 bodies — those of 16 women, seven men and 11 children. Germany saw an unprecedented 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrive last year, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
One survivor told APTN that the vessel’s engine failed about 3 a.m., five hours after they departed from Izmir in Turkey. Speaking at a reception center on the island of Kalymnos, he said about 80 people on board had paid $2,500 each for a berth, with half that sum for children. Turkey hosts more than 2.2 million Syrian refugees from a nearly five-year civil war that has killed a quarter of a million people and displaced half the country. Peace talks are scheduled to begin Sunday in Geneva, although officials say they might be delayed by a few days.
Davutoglu praised Merkel for her open-door stance, saying the steps she took “will go down in history. The people of Syria will never forget this humanitarian stance.”
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned that the 28-nation bloc faces big economic risks if its members start putting up walls that restrict borderless travel.
“We are doing studies of that, and it is impressive,” she said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who last year built fences on his nation’s borders with Serbia and Croatia, praised Austria for setting a cap this week on the numbers of refugees it will take.
“Common sense has prevailed,” Orban said on state radio, calling the Austrian decision “the most important news of the past months.”
“Europe can’t take in huge masses of foreign people in an unlimited, uncontrolled manner,” he said, adding that for Hungary, “the best migrant is the migrant who does not come.”
Greek authorities say neighboring Macedonia has again stopped letting in refugees heading north from Greece, leaving about 750 people stranded on the border. There was no official explanation for the move late Friday, and Macedonian authorities were not immediately available for comment.
In the first sinking before dawn Friday in the eastern Aegean, a wooden boat carrying 49 people went down off Farmakonissi islet. Forty people managed to make it to shore, while authorities rescued one girl and recovered the bodies of six children and two women.
A few hours later, a sailboat sank off Kalolimnos, south of Farmakonissi. The coast guard rescued 22 men and four women, and recovered 35 bodies: 17 women, seven men and 11 children.
One survivor told APTN that the vessel’s engine failed about 3 a.m., five hours after they left Izmir, Turkey. Speaking at a reception center on the nearby island of Kalymnos, he said about 80 people on board had paid $2,500 each for a berth, with half that sum for children.
Later, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the Turkish coast guard rescued six survivors from the area of the two accidents and found another three bodies.Later, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the Turkish coast guard rescued six survivors from the area of the two accidents and found another three bodies.
Kate O’Sullivan, a member of the Save the Children charity team on the island of Lesbos, expressed horror at Friday’s drownings and urged the EU to secure safe, legal passage for refugees. ___
“Instead of focusing on building fences and tightening border controls, we are calling on European leaders to take action to ensure no more children lose their lives senselessly,” she said. Associated Press writer David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.